The 116th chapter “Capital” (part one)
At the moment only Du Wei, Clark, and the veteran soldier -the soldier is one of the minor guard leaders that Du Wei brought with him from home – remained in the room.
For a time, the room was filled with silence. The only noise that could be heard is the cleaning sound created outside by the remaining guards tending to the bodies of the deceased or the injured.
In this assassination attempt, the casualties amounted to 6 dead, and 4 injured.
Seeing the young master still hasn’t spoken a word yet, the guard leader dared not walk away or say anything unnecessary. The only thing he could do was to keep his silence while standing in front of Du Wei.
After a long time, Du Wei finally looked up. Then, ignoring the guard leader, he walked in front of Clark and respectfully saluted. With a slight smile on his face, Du Wei said: “Mage Clark, thank you. If not for you, I’m afraid I would have become a corpse by now.”
Despite having a pale complexion due to overexerting himself, Clark quickly stood up and addressed a few good words.
Waving his hands, Du Wei sternly said: “No need to be polite, what I said is from the heart. If you didn’t save me earlier, I would’ve been killed by those people already. It’s just that the matter is not so simple….”
At this point, Du Wei deliberately paused and didn’t continue.
There is no doubt Clark is also a quick witted person. With a glance at Du Wei, Clark casually said: “Right now you are already a magic scholar of the union. If you have anything to say, feel free to say it.”
Du Wei laughed a bit. Eyes still gloomy, he turned around to look at the minor guard leader and pointed at the crossbows on the ground: “Immediately take these things somewhere and burn them. Do not leave any trace behind. Once you are out the door, do not ever again mention the things you said today. Keep them hidden inside your heart! From what I see, these are nothing but imitations of the military’s arms, do you understand?
The guard leader looked up to meet Du Wei in the eyes, but saw how cold they were. While Du Wei may be young, but he is still after all the eldest son of the Earl. In addition, they have just experienced so many things, so of course he wouldn’t dare to say anything else. Nodding immediately, the guard replied: “Yes!” Young Master is right; maybe I was wrong, I already left the Imperial forces for many years. It is possible for me to be mistaken, forgive me!”
Du Wei waved his hand and spoke in a light voice: “Good then. Go outside and have everyone clean this place up, and then send a person on horseback to a bigger town nearby to inform the officials of our situation. You don’t need to say more, just inform them bandits coveted our goods and attacked us. Do you understand? If you say even half a word you aren’t supposed to…..”
Speaking up to here, Du Wei gently made a humph sound before pressing his hand against the chairs handrail. Immediately, the handrail was covered in a layer of ice and extruding a frosty air. Using his hand, Du Wei squeezed against the wooden handrail and a crisp sound of wood breaking could be heard. From appearances, the wood may have looked fine, but the insides were already crushed due to what Du Wei did earlier. So after completely crushing the handrail to dust, Du Wei glimpsed at the guard leader to get his point through.
Feeling his body go numb, the guard leader could not help but find his young master to be frightfully scary despite Du Wei’s young age. In his mind, he was thinking how could a 14 year old have such cold eyes? Comparing Du Wei to his superiors, the guard leader feared that even the generals in the army would not have the kind of eyes he was seeing now! Without delaying, the guy hurriedly nodded.
Seeing this, Du Wei smiled: “You may go then…… Go find manager Marde to get 100 gold coins; it’s my reward to you.”
Afraid to say anything else, the guard soldier quickly bowed in salute and then picked up the crossbows on the floor before turning away.
Du Wei then turned to Clark and spoke with a smiling face: ” Mage Clark, from what you have seen, do you think I handled this matter well?”
Clark was also secretly surprised: This young master of the Rowling Household is nothing like a juvenile adult should be acting. Just the method and the way he handles the situation is above the norm. It could even match up to most of the nobles in the capital he have met before.
Just moments ago, he was nearly killed. Then in such a short amount of time since then, he managed to calm himself down without losing his head. But most importantly, in such a complicated situation, he knows not to make things public and keep a tight lid on the event. Such mindset…..
Thinking up to here, Clark smiled at once: “Master Du Wei, you handled the situation quite well. I’m afraid this matter is not so simple, now is not the time to make a scene.”
Both individuals may have their own respective calculations in mind, but their smiling faces were truly warm.
After experiencing such a big event in Timber town, Du Wei no longer dared to travel overnight. To begin with, he didn’t bring a lot of people with him on this trip back to the capital. Now that some of them are assassinated by the enemy, it is even more worrisome if they were ambushed on the road at night.
After sending someone to call for help from a larger nearby town, Du Wei and his personal guards barricaded themselves inside the hotel till the next day.
By the second day, the several soldiers they sent out finally returned, bringing with them 300 soldiers. After hearing the eldest son of the military’s second in command was nearly assassinated, the executive officer in charge of this region immediately shouted in fright. Fortunately Du Wei did not die because if he did, the guy would have been forced to bear a certain amount of responsibility. Without delay, the executive officer gathered 300 elite cavalry riders under him and came rushing over.
Although Clark already performed a healing spell on Du Wei, but the wound could not be fully healed because Clark is someone that specializes in the dark arts. So when the executive officer arrived and saw how pale Du Wei is, the guy was scared out of his mind. Immediately, he ordered his subordinates to scour the area for the bandits. Luckily the guy still had a good mind. Before heading over here, the officer has been smart enough to invite a priest from the nearby temple just in case.
The influence of the Temple is huge throughout the continent. Just about every town of considerable size would be stationed with a Temple. On one hand, they are responsible for collecting levies from their followers. On the other hand, they are also there to promote the temple’s influence and offer a place for the followers to stay. As such, no matter how weak the priests are in these temples, they are always skilled in the art of healing.
Originally, Du Wei carried with him the magic bag that old Gandalf left behind for him. Stored inside is the water from the fountain of youth that he brought with him from the north. Due to its solidifying properties, the water is exceptionally good at treating wounds. However, Du Wei didn’t want to waste the water because he had a desire to examine the water in the future in hopes of learning something new.
As such, Du Wei was exceptionally polite towards the priest that the garrison officer brought with him. As for Clark, the guy showed an indifferent looking face without saying much. It is obvious the relationship between the magic union and the temple is not very good.
With the help of the priest, Du Wei’s injury was quickly healed. Without delaying any longer, they continued to head towards the capital under the protection of the elite troops from the local garrison.
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Along the way, Du Wei was finally able to feel at ease because he was under the protection of so many soldiers. It’s just that when he saw Clark – currently sitting in the same carriage as him – he began to secretly think:
This guy is also weird…… The magic union sent him to give me gifts, but why not earlier or later? He just has to come in the middle of my journey….. Could it be that the Magic Union knew someone would come assassinate me? I’m willing to bet this guy was actually sent here to protect me.
Since someone came to assassinate me, then it’s clear that someone doesn’t wish for me to return to the capital! Meanwhile the Magic Union requires me to return to the capital……
What effect does a little boy like me have for these people?
Pressing these questions to the back of his mind, Du Wei didn’t say anything and continued like this towards the north.
On this day, they finally came to the outer reaches of the capital city.
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960 years after the founding of the empire by his majesty Aragon, the imperial capital has been expanded considerably by multiple reigning emperors. Nowadays, the capital city has truly become the number one city on the continent in terms of size or wealth!