Soul of Searing Steel

Although Joshua did not like to play tricks, his EQ was not low. The warrior clearly knew that the old mage would invite him to travel together over to the Imperial City. Other than sincerely wanting to help the warrior, part of it was because the old mage wanted to strike an impression on the people in the Imperial City.

The current political situation in the Imperial City had yet to become complicated. In short, there were only a few parties such as the Central Royal Family, the local nobles, the Church and the more powerful merchants. The royal family had obviously suppressed the other parties because they had the emperor who had the strength of a Legendary tier. However, even in that case, there were many smaller factions under each party. Some of them even joined forces with the other faction in other parties just to for their own benefits.

Meanwhile, that sort of things was actually not uncommon.

Nostradamus was the emperor’s tutor when he was young. He himself was once part of the Central Royal Family party, a Supreme-tier mage of the Kaos family. He was one of the Imperial Leaders who was extremely powerful. Meanwhile, the Radcliffe family had also been part of the royal family party in the Empire 400 years ago. The emperor of that time had directly granted the territory in the North to the Radcliffe family. So theoretically speaking, the Radcliffe family should still be the party that supports the Central Royal Family.

However, due to the inability to establish a teleportation portal to communicate smoothly with the outside world for the past 400 years, the Moldavia administration gradually shifted to a local party of nobles. In actual fact, before Joshua’s succession, Radcliffes were like the royal family of Moldavia. Although they did not rule ruthlessly like tyrants, the words of the count were as powerful as the law of the Empire Kingdom. If they said one, then it would be one and not two.  ¹

Even though it was actually not that significant that Joshua and Nostradamus could go to the Imperial City together, it could at least send a message saying that the Radcliffe family had returned to the party of the royal family.

In fact, Joshua did not mind that. However, he was aware of the future development of this world. The warrior knew that the future of the royal family of the Northern Empire would be involved with a number of difficulties. Hence they would not have extra energy to provide him with support. Instead of going out into the public with such a high profile, why not he just lay low and get rich quietly for the moment first? That would be the best option for the moment.

After all, it was truly tedious to get involved in political struggles. Compared to that, even wandering around in the territory would be even more interesting.

After ending the conversation with Nostradamus, Joshua took a moment to think about it. Walking back and forth in the study room, he was almost done planning and confirming his future plans.

Since he no longer planned to teleport over to the Imperial City with the old mage, then he would just walk all the way over to the Imperial City then. Well, he could just treat the journey as a trip. He could also rest up a little on the way and better understand the local customs along the way to the Imperial City. Truthfully speaking, Joshua had not yet truly observed the culture of this world up till this point. Due to the long winter, the cities in the North appeared to be a little monotonous and inactive. Occasionally, he wanted to see the beauty of other places.

“Hey, come here.”

After making that decision, he stopped in his tracks and turned his head, with a serious expression on his face. He looked at Ling who was leaning on the table as if he was doing nothing and said, “I have a mission for you.”

“Yes, Master!”

The idea of the count would naturally be fulfilled. After the order was given out by Joshua, people in the liege’s mansion began to prepare all the supplies and things required for Joshua’s journey. As the butler with power in managing the mansion, Ling was naturally busy with basically everything that was going on in the mansion. Meanwhile, Ying was not in a better situation than her brother as well, She would sometimes be dragged by her brothers over to do some work. Even after the sun had set, the liege’s mansion was still filled with a busy atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Joshua did not stay idle either. After he had instructed everyone to prepare everything he needed for the upcoming journey, he straight away went over to Winter Fort Academy at Mount Nissia through the teleportation circle as he was ready to observe the academy.

Night had arrived. When he reached the academy, Joshua could see that there were countless stars blinking bright in the night sky, along with the presence of the twin moons, blanketing the academy on the mountainside with a layer of radiance that looked like silver snow.

Compared to a month ago, the academy had many changes. Every time when Joshua arrived to observe, the place seemed to have changed a lot.

Nostradamus seemed to have devoted all his energy and effort into this. Halfway up the mountain, other than Winter Fort, the construction of the rune factory was the only thing that was yet to be completed. The unfinished rune factory surrounded by a dense cedar forest. But now, there was no more cedar trees that were tough as steel within hundreds of meters around the academy. The rugged terrain of the ground was also flattened by magic. There was no longer a complex and varied terrain seen on the surface of the land. Meanwhile, right by the side of the main gate of Winter Fort, there were artificial turf and a series of magical bouquets that could survive the cold.

That was only the outer perimeter of the academy. Meanwhile, the change in the interior of the academy was much more significant than that on the outer perimeter of the academy.

The warrior walked into the hall of the academy and looked up into the ceiling of the hall. He found that there were more exotic decorations, such as the inscription of the magic patterns, the stone carvings that could provide a range of magical power, and a fountain that was flowing with an endless stream of pure water. The surroundings also had quite a number of seats for people to rest. It looked like a place that many people would come. However, there were not many people around here because of the time now. There were only a few young students walking across the compound in a hurry.

These students did not seem to have noticed the presence of the warrior at the side. The teenagers seemed to be carrying heavy notebooks in their hands. However, although their faces seemed a little tired, they still looked energized and vibrant from the bottom of their hearts and souls.

As it ought to be—most of the students around here were just civilians. Even the children of the hunters in the mountains, the children of the farmers with only a little savings had the opportunity to change their lives because of the ‘gift’ they had. Only fools would not cherish such opportunity presented in front of them. Nobody would give up even if it was extremely tiring and tormenting.

That was a place where people could see hope for continuous improvement and advancement. Hence, no one here would become deprived.

“… I blame you for forgetting to bring your notebook. Now you have to go back and get it. We’re going to be late for the night revision class because of you. I wonder how Teacher will criticize us now…”

“It’s my fault, my fault…”

“Night revision? So now they actually have such a thing going on? Nostradamus is truly responsible.”

Upon hearing what the two students said as they hurried through the compound of the academy, Joshua could not help but chuckle in silence. However, right after that, he noticed that some of the issues regarding education he discussed with the old mage seemed to have advanced a little too soon.

According to Nostradamus’ wisdom, the academy had now implemented night revision classes. And maybe he would soon create and implement something like five years of magic and three years of simulations. Well, one should know that other than night revision classes, the academy also had other co-curricular activities, tuition classes, and other programs. Everything that should be there was already there, except for the exams.

Joshua did not interfere with the construction and the development of Winter Fort at all. That was the academy owned by Nostradamus after all. He was the honorary principal of the academy and he had the right to prioritize which students he would pass. However, other than the investment that was made at the beginning of the project, the warrior did not even do a thing in the follow-up construction and development of the academy after its construction was completed. Well, it seemed that the old mage had done a really good job in those regards. Also, he did not even need to worry about it. He only needed to enjoy the outcome of it in the future.

Walking along the way, Joshua passed by many places, including the restaurants, the laboratories, and the classrooms where the night revision classes were held. Joshua looked around and nodded. No matter whether the students were serious in their studies or the teachers that were serious in their teachings, he felt reassured by all of it.

After walking through a few corridors, the warrior arrived at the library located in the center of the academy in the halfway of the mountain.

There were many people in the library. Most of them were young students. They were quietly holding on their own books, and they were reading the books like they were hungry for knowledge. They were learning and absorbing the knowledge in the books.

According to some rumors, in order to fill up this huge library, Nostradamus even made copies of most of his own library’s books and put them all there. There were many valuable books that were no longer being printed. The old mage even included his own notebooks into the archives of the library. Meanwhile, his students and teachers who had been hired also made a lot of contributions in such regard. However, the sum-up of their contributions was no match to the contribution made by the old mage alone.

For a mage, books were the true wealth they sought after. The things that Nostradamus did was equivalent to donating half of his fortune to the needy ones. One could see how much effort and dedication he had put into running the academy.

Standing by the door of the library, Joshua swept the environment with his eyes. After that, just when he was ready to take his leave, he saw a familiar person from the corner of his eye.

It was a little boy with blond hair. The warrior felt that the boy looked very familiar at first sight. After that, he swiftly remembered.

Not long ago, there was a little fellow that showed utterly high interest in his magic-enhanced armor. His name was Ivan. He was very courageous. This little boy had struck a deep impression in Joshua’s memory. However, unfortunately, based on the information obtained from the previous investigation on the Dragon’s Calamity, the warrior learned that parents of this little boy would die when the Dragon’s Calamity arrived. By then, the little boy and his sister would be left with an elderly foster parent who appeared to be a scholar. Well, Joshua had never expected that this little boy had enrolled himself to Winter Fort now.

The boy was focusing his attention on reading a book by the name [Detailed Structure of the Guardian Servants]. It seemed that the boy had chosen to enroll in the Magic-Enhanced Mechanical course. Joshua smiled gently and nodded in satisfaction. After that, he walked into the shadows by the corridor and vanished.

Everything was going fine and well in the academy. So the warrior did not need to worry about the affairs in the academy.

Meanwhile, at the same time, in the depths of the Great Ajax Volcano, in the underground lava pool.

Black was still circling back and forth in the lava pool, looking joyful without showing even the slightest sign of tiredness. Well, it was unprecedented in its history that Black had actually felt so comfortable with an environment. It used to be a dragon-blood horse with the fire attribute. However, it had been living in an extremely cold environment in the North for more than a year. It was really bad. Even after it had awakened its bloodline and made some slight adjustment to adapt to the cold, Black could only swim in the palm-print lake by Mount Nissia, which coldness would seep into one’s bones.

Hence, the lava pool was the perfect place to perfectly match the strength of its bloodline. If it could, Black would really want to stay in this pool of lava forever until it really reaches a limit of its own strength.

However, just when it was thinking about that, a strange and bizarre quiver came from above.

The blue light continuously radiated in the form of rippling waves. The dimensional door that was located in the mid-air right by the lava pool was shaking slowly. Right on the end of the dimensional space, some strange movements were heard. It sounded as if it was the voice of someone speaking.

Somewhat suspicious, Black lifted its head up and looked at the empty pit. In the meantime, it seemed as if the voice of someone speaking lasted for a brief moment and stopped.

Black had no understanding at all towards such situations. However, since it already stopped, Black should not feel bothered by it anymore. It continued to soak itself in the lava as it was feeling the heat of the fire elementals.

However, along with a sudden violent tremor that gradually became intense, something seemed to be thrown over into this world. A chunk of black matter passed through the dimensional passage and flew across mid-air in the shape of an arc.

The half-dragon horse completely did not understand what the hell was that chunk of matter that was thrown at it. It subconsciously opened its mouth and caught the chunk of matter with its mouth and held it tight in its mouth after that.