Chapter 219 Believe
North of the Frostwhisper Mountains, there's no spring, and even summer is pitifully brief. From the far north of the Silver Iris Empire, the sturdy, towering triple black iron walls of the Northern City stand unshaken amidst a vast expanse of white. Magma from beneath the earth's veins continuously heats the city's furnace, making it as silent yet tenacious as snow beasts huddled together against a blizzard on the eternal ice plains.
But if one brushed aside the floating snow, one could see beneath the blizzard not a herd of beasts awaiting the end of the bitter cold, but rather a pile of pale, lifeless corpses. The victims, dressed as soldiers from both sides, had their eyes bulging with fear. The ends of their broken limbs were razor-sharp, their bones white and sharp, even the blood frozen by the frost.
The closer they got to the northern city, the more frozen corpses appeared. By the time they reached the city gates, the casualties were no longer just soldiers; civilians and priests gradually appeared. They no longer lay on the ground, slain by swords or guns, but rather lifelike ice sculptures, their movements attempting to escape and their facial expressions of fear and despair vividly expressed.
The heavy toe of a boot crushed half a frozen arm. The limb, surprisingly brittle, shattered into tiny pieces. The visitor looked up to see the majestic black gates of the Northern City crushed by a grayish-white ice wall covered in giant spikes. At the end of each spike lay the frozen remains of a soldier, pierced through, suspended upside down over twenty meters in the air, their pupils still etched in the dilated terror of their final moment.
The remaining fragments of the original site of the city gate were deeply embedded in the ice wall. A hand picked up a corner of the giant, deformed badge on the snow. The other party looked at it for a moment, and with a dull creaking sound, the cast iron iris badge turned into fragments and was buried by layers of wind and snow along with the huge claw marks left on the broken city gate.
…
"Mr. Chief, let me emphasize again," Hui Jin resisted the urge to throw the financial report in the black-haired young man's face and repeated word for word, "We have no money."
"Weapons need repair, ammunition needs replenishment, the wounded need medical treatment, and the families of the deceased need compensation..." The middle-aged man's eyes were dark, and his face was haggard, as if he had been dead for a while. He counted on his fingers, reading out the details one by one for the crowd to hear: "Even though the recent clearing of garbage at the port has brought in a lot of income, it's barely enough to cover daily needs, leaving no room for additional expenses. Please tell me, how can we support the next battle, or even take the initiative to fight?"
If Ashes could get to know the Finance Minister of the Silver Iris Empire, he would probably feel a very similar resonance with the human heart.
Their chief blinked slowly and innocently: "Continue to solicit sponsorship?"
Allies are meant to be used.
"I wrote a letter to Pavaton Miller." Amidst the gasps of everyone who suddenly realized who Pavaton Miller was, the black-haired young man calmly took out a reply letter from the Cardinal.
A rare, smug, fake smile crossed his face. "Your Excellency, the benevolent Cardinal, deeply sympathizes with the plight of the slaves in Port Morris and is willing to provide some personal financial support to the People's Party."
He had to sympathize and be willing, unless he wanted to allow some things to be reported to His Holiness the Pope - anyway, Nova had already completely offended the Holy See, and a dead pig was not afraid of boiling water, but the noble and dignified "Dustless Light" had to worry about too many things.
The sinister and cunning villain has no conscience or moral concerns about this "ally" - after all, the "ally" is there to be cheated.
Hui Jin was silent for a moment, then shook his head helplessly and sat back down to indicate he had no objection. Their chief was stern and infuriating, but working for him meant constantly maintaining a state of alertness and pushing one's potential to its limits. However, his abilities were undeniably formidable; he truly solved any problem.
Grayven, standing by, looked at people as if they were holy statues, with no intention of questioning the authenticity of the source of the information. Ashes couldn't help but feel the urge to smile bitterly.
They had clearly single-handedly formed the Port Morris slave army, but now the center of power was irreversibly shifting toward an outsider. The other party was like the ultimate source of light, irresistibly engulfing everyone's attention.
To say he willingly gave up power would be a lie. But even if it was out of a protective attitude, Ashes couldn't say anything about Greven being more appropriate than a human being, and he couldn't even feel too much resentment.
Greven was a good guy, otherwise so many slaves wouldn't trust and love him. In Ash's opinion, he was a good friend, a good soldier, and a good general, but after all, his background and perspective limited his vision - he wasn't suited to be a true "leader," steering a ship through a tsunami that engulfed the world.
Then, Ashes heard the "leader" he had just praised with mixed feelings suddenly announce, "I'm going to the Kasa Strait and then to the Batalia Highlands for a field survey. Leave Port Morris to Graven for now. Shadow Chaser and the others will assist you."
ash:"……"
——Why is this guy running around like a ghost again? !
Greven was stunned for a moment when his name was suddenly called. He opened his mouth, a rare fluster rising in his face. He was a natural at the battlefield, a natural at it—but governing a city, dealing with the same issues Mr. Nova had dealt with...
The poor boy from the countryside, after becoming a warrior, suddenly once again experienced the panic and inferiority he felt when he first entered a bustling big city.
"Don't worry, it won't be long." The other party seemed to know what he was thinking. "And I will teach you. I've left you a sample. Nothing serious will happen in Port Morris from now on. Just follow the instructions. If there are any unexpected problems, feel free to contact me."
"I believe you can do it."
Those smoky gray eyes gazed at him calmly, like a clear silver mirror, combing through his entire soul. Greven even felt the illusion that the other person understood him better than he did—he ignored the inexplicable hair on the back of his neck.
If this is the conclusion Mr. Nova has drawn...
The brown-haired young man heard himself answer seriously as if possessed by a ghost: "Okay, I will definitely not let you down."
After Greven and the others left, the professor turned to look at the empty side and asked, "Is it okay for your people to stay here alone?"
Azuka's figure slowly emerged from thin air: "Lamina will take care of it."
"They've adapted well," commented the Natalin's God-Favoured One. "As for the Common Tongue, Lamina has learned it the fastest and is now teaching her brother, the children, and the elders of the tribe. As for Basa, he's the first to find a job, temporarily responsible for feeding the Doom Lord in the dungeon. The others don't dare approach it."
A gentle smile appeared in the blond young man's blue eyes: "Don't worry about the Natalin people, they can take good care of themselves."
"I'm more worried about your dragons. The pain of the fusion period is always inevitable." The professor frowned. "Even though it seems peaceful now, and the people of Port Morris seem to be quite accepting of dragon riders, if a dragon injures someone, even if it's just an accident, the situation will become complicated."
After all, the current Natalin people are still a group of outsiders to the people of Port Morris.
The other person laughed softly: "It seems that we are thinking the same thing."
"I've already instructed our dragon trainers to take extra care of them," the savior couldn't help but rub the back of the black-haired young man's neck, speaking seriously. "Our dragons are also not allowed to attack the livestock and catches of the people of Port Morris. If an accident occurs, they must compensate at full price and offer a sincere apology. Are you satisfied, my sir?"
"...Hmm." The professor was so distracted by his words that he didn't have time to pay attention to those warm fingers. "Maybe we can let Long participate in the city construction in the future - well, we can take it one step at a time. After dealing with the traitor, we must first solve the most important problem of food."
He rubbed his brows with a headache, slowly exhaled, sat on the chair with his eyes half closed, and let the other person massage his shoulders and back.
…It was actually quite comfortable. After the initial aches and pains, my stiff muscles seemed to melt bit by bit under his fingertips into soft fur in the sun, itching and slightly numbing.
The black-haired young man was being kneaded until a comfortable murmur almost rolled out of his throat, and then he suddenly remembered something: "You didn't seem very happy just now."
Azuka was stunned for a moment, then saw his old enemy look up and look at him inquiringly. "Why? Is it because I told Greven 'I believe him'?"
Then the man seemed to have figured something out, and suddenly realized: "So you are jealous?"
——That should be it, the professor thought confidently. After all, he has a good memory and is good at drawing inferences from one instance.
A certain petty-minded god who had indeed secretly glared at someone: "..."
The savior sighed, half-knelt down in front of the person, and looked into the other person's eyes seriously.
"Dear, I don't want to be a bad lover." He took her hand, placed it on his lips and kissed it gently. "...So sometimes, if I have some uncontrollable emotions, I will try to deal with them myself instead of being unreasonable when you are very tired."
Of course, these things are occasionally - or not so "occasionally" - classified as fun, a means of asking for favors, and malicious intentions to deliberately bully others.
"But I'm still very happy." The savior smiled gently at the other's confused eyes, his blue eyes seemed to murmur the melting warm sea water, and his voice was as gentle as the waves washing the shore.
“…I’m very happy.”
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