"Back to your home?"
After they escaped Mist Valley, Jason made his suggestion, prompting Veronica and Linda to look at him.
"Yes, let's go together," Jason said, inviting them along.
Jason had lived in Rhine City for ten years before, and he had grown somewhat attached to it. He wanted to go back and have a look.
Besides, with his strength at the peak of the eighth level, Jason felt that staying in the valley was not only dangerous, but that the concentration of elements there would do little to help him break through to the ninth level.
Linda wanted to wait until things died down before negotiating with the dragons for a piece of territory in the valley, but she worried that they wouldn't be as accommodating as the griffins and might not accept Jason and the others settling in Mist Valley.
Before Jason left home, the Rhine Clan had told him there was a place within the clan called the "Holy Land," which he could enter once he reached the ninth level. He wanted to see it.
After all, the Rhine Clan's ancestor had been Deity-level. Perhaps he really had left something immensely precious behind.
The experts drawn to the Necropolis of the Gods five thousand years ago needed only to let a little something slip through their fingers, and it would be enough to benefit beings below the Deity-level for thousands of years.
Veronica had no particular objection, but Linda didn't want to leave. As a Level Nine Magical Beast living in a valley with such excellent conditions, why should she? Those dragons clearly had no intention of wiping them all out, and she was just a tiny little cat, not some big eater. Claiming a little space for herself would be easy enough.
"I'm a member of the Rhine Empire's imperial family. We have an imperial kitchen at home that prepares delicious food. My younger sister is rich, and all the shops and taverns on an entire street belong to her. My older brother likes hunting, and he often brings back game as well as lots of magicite cores."
"Meow?" When are we leaving?
Jason and Veronica brought Linda to Blue Lake Manor, which they had left five years ago.
Because cultivators generally lived longer, the pace of life on the Yulan Continent was quite slow. At least, Mo'ernazha was still the ambassador to the Holy Union stationed at Blue Lake Manor.
When the two hooded figures, their faces concealed, found Mo'ernazha, it took him a long time to recognize Jason and Veronica.
"Your Highness, five years ago, the Radiant Church sent people to question the manor. After we denied everything, they did not pursue the matter further. However, you never returned to Rhine City, and His Majesty has been quite worried. He ordered me to do everything I could to find you." Mo'ernazha paused. "Your Highness, you should return to the royal capital as soon as possible."
"Mm. I came to see you because I wanted to know if there was a relatively safe way back to Rhine City." Jason had spent enough time in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts and wanted to hitch a ride along a more comfortable trade route.
Mo'ernazha could tell that Jason's strength had improved tremendously. Veronica and Linda, in particular, surprised him.
"There's a caravan returning to the royal capital tomorrow. Would that suit you?"
Jason looked at Veronica.
"Either way is fine with me."
"Tomorrow it is, then." Jason thought of the Baruch Clan. "How is the Baruch Clan doing?"
Mo'ernazha glanced at Veronica. "The Baruch Clan never recovered from what happened that night. After Mikhail, their strongest member, died, several experts supported by the clan turned against them and made off with a great deal of wealth. The previous clan leader used overly bloody methods to seize power and was betrayed by relatives from the maternal side of the family. He was killed, and several of the Baruch Clan's branch families were nearly wiped out along with him. Two years ago, a new clan leader took over at only fifteen years of age. You could say the Baruch Clan has no chance of recovering."
Veronica showed no particular reaction.
"Was the Radiant Church involved?" Jason asked.
"Yes, but we have no evidence. The Rhine Empire has no stake in the matter."
Jason nodded. He didn't want to get involved for now. At the very least, he would wait until he had confirmed whether Linley would be born.
The journey with the caravan was peaceful. Mikhail had originally wanted to send a guard, but he gave up the idea when he thought of Linda, the Level Nine Magical Beast Moonshadow Flame Cat, and sent only a coachman.
The two of them and the cat rode in a very ordinary carriage.
The route across the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts had many rugged stretches, and an overly luxurious carriage would fall apart.
"Meow, meow, meow!"
"What did she say?"
"She asked why we're going into the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. Weren't there supposed to be delicious things to eat?" Veronica translated.
"This is the Holy Union. My home is in the Rhine Empire, and it'll take another half a year to get there."
"Meow-" The cat gave a disgruntled cry.
"Focus on cultivating during this time. Break through to the Saint-level sooner, and then you can eat delicious food forever. Otherwise, you'll die of old age."
"Meow!"
"None of your business."
Bandits were still rampant along the trade routes.
In this world of cultivation, where someone who hacked at magical beasts was an adventurer but became a bandit when they turned around and hacked at people, the authorities could not eradicate bandits.
But since Mo'ernazha had recommended this caravan, it was certainly strong enough to bring Jason back to the Rhine Empire.
There was no need for Jason and the others to act. One Eighth-level Warrior in the caravan could drive off most bandits by himself.
The caravan carried few goods, but its carriages were heavily laden, and the goods were tightly wrapped.
Jason took a quick look. They were a batch of "luxury goods": small stone carvings, various musical instruments, and jewelry inlaid with pearls, gemstones, and magicite cores, among other things.
Fenlai City was the artistic capital of the Yulan Continent, while the Yulan Empire, which was also strong in that field, did not get along very well with the Rhine Empire. Naturally, merchants from the Rhine Empire bought luxury goods in Fenlai City to sell back home.
That evening, when they made camp:
"I am Ednaldo of the Rhine Empire's Golden Rose Merchant Association. Might I make your acquaintance?"
The man before Jason was the strongest person in the caravan, the Eighth-level Warrior Ednaldo. Although he was the strongest, he was not the caravan's leader. That was another middle-aged man who was skilled in business.
As for the Golden Rose Merchant Association, it was a relatively large merchant association in the Rhine Kingdom. The family of Jason's younger sister Lucy's mother was one of its major shareholders.
"I'm Jason, from a branch of the Rhine Clan. This is my girlfriend, Veronica." Jason wasn't at all afraid of being recognized. The name "Jason" was so inconspicuous that, back at the imperial palace, many members of the Rhine Clan hadn't even known that the second son of their emperor, Maisiji, who was also the Rhine Clan's patriarch, was named Jason.
Veronica, on the other hand, blushed slightly.
"A pleasure to meet you." Ednaldo accepted the wine Veronica handed him.
"I rarely meet warriors of my own level, and I'd very much like to exchange pointers with you." After chatting for a while, Ednaldo stated his purpose.
"Sure." Jason readily agreed.
At a glance, Jason was at the eighth level, and Veronica was a Seventh-level Warrior. As for Linda, since Moonshadow Flame Cats could be either eighth or ninth level, everyone assumed she was an eighth-level magical beast.
Jason had spent five years in Mist Valley, and aside from magical beasts, he had only sparred with Veronica. He wanted to see how strong a human warrior of the same level was.
Then, one slash.
Yes, Jason used only one slash, and Ednaldo's internal organs churned. He immediately admitted defeat.
Even without using "force," with Wielding Something Heavy as Though It Were Light alone, Jason's strength far surpassed Ednaldo's, who was still using "martial techniques." In Jason's view, Ednaldo, who also used a longsword, was less skilled with it than his own dual-sword skeleton.
Besides, Jason was now a warrior at the peak of the eighth level, while Ednaldo had yet to touch the threshold of the ninth level.