Chapter 195: Arrival After Departure

After the old officer left, Shaoke learned from other mages and warriors that the other party was the legion commander of the Blizzard Thirty-Third Corps, and he had held that position for a long time.

Not long after the legion commander left, at the announcement of a high-ranking mage, the banquet entered its most exciting part: finding dance partners. Of course, due to the scarcity of female practitioners here, the high-ranking mages and high-ranking warriors gave up their right to invite female practitioners, offering this opportunity first to the younger mages.

With lively music, mages soon invited their dance partners and began dancing under everyone's appreciation. Mage Yisier, who loved dancing, was the first to be invited, but after some consideration, she chose a handsome third-tier mage. Mage Roman and the other female practitioners were not too picky and readily accepted their invitations.

The banquet lasted until midnight. As time passed, the high-rank practitioners left early, as they were somewhat unaccustomed to participating in such activities with the younger mages.

When exchanging dance partners after a dance, a flushed Mage Roman approached Shaoke, who was watching. "Mage Xueye, may I dance with you?" she said, pursing her lips tightly to keep from laughing. She wanted to take this opportunity to dance with Shaoke, an idea she had had before the banquet started. Unfortunately, Shaoke hadn't invited her earlier, which disappointed her, so she had to invite him herself.

"I dance very poorly," Shaoke said, looking into the female mage's hopeful eyes, and reluctantly agreed.

"It's fine. Many mages here aren't very good at dancing either." As another piece of music began, Shaoke gently held the female mage's slender waist and slowly moved toward the center of the dance floor. "I didn't expect you to enjoy dancing too," he said, noticing the flush on her face, whether from excitement or fatigue, and couldn't help but tighten his hold on her waist slightly.

"It's been a long time since I last danced, so I'm quite happy today," the female mage said, moving a bit closer to Shaoke as they continued dancing.

Not long after Shaoke and the female mage started dancing, the banquet ended. During this time, Shaoke had danced with many female mages and even clerics. While dancing, the female practitioners asked him one question after another, mostly about his relationship with Mage Roman. Shaoke had to patiently answer them, knowing that these female practitioners dancing with him were undoubtedly friends of Mage Roman, so it wasn't appropriate to refuse them.

That night, the female mage did not return to her own tent but squeezed into Shaoke's smaller tent instead. Of course, just before dawn, she hurriedly gathered her belongings and ran back, not wanting too many mages to know she had spent the night in a male mage's tent.

The wailing sound of horns echoed shortly after the female mage returned. Reminded by this signal, the entire camp, which had been quiet all night, immediately sprang into action. The noise of tens of thousands of people made it impossible for Shaoke to immerse himself in meditation. This went on for some time, which worried him because he usually wouldn't be bothered by this level of noise.

Gently rubbing his head to feel more alert, Shaoke quickly packed his scattered belongings and left the tent, as he had to go to the dining hall specially prepared for the mages.

By the time the mages finished their meal, the entire camp had been fully organized. Numerous tents were quickly taken down by the soldiers, and flatbed carriages loaded with supplies, driven by coachmen, had already set off ahead of schedule.

The sleazy officer, protected by several Blizzard Warriors, came looking for them. "Mages, we must set off now. I heard our destination this time is a rather distant large city. Apparently! So it will take us quite some time to get there." As he spoke, the sleazy officer gestured vigorously, seemingly trying to use his arms to express the distance, but no mage paid him any attention, which somewhat deflated him. However, upon seeing the group of female practitioners, he regained his usual demeanor and approached them to chat.

Just as the sleazy officer had said, the new garrison location this time was quite far. After advancing at high speed for over a month, the entire army had to slow down. As they moved farther from the imperial capital, the roads became increasingly difficult to traverse. Although nearby small cities continuously sent people to clear them, they were largely ineffective against the wildly growing trees and weeds, as their manpower was too limited to undertake major projects.

Under the legion commander's orders, the army did its best to help maintain the roads of the small cities they passed through. Large numbers of trees were cut down, and groups of magical beasts were hunted by the warriors. Although the army's progress was slower, as they advanced, a relatively wide road appeared behind them. This greatly pleased the local civilians and merchants, as smoother transportation meant an influx of merchants and the export of local specialties, allowing them to prosper to some extent.

Thus, through simple road clearing and widening work, this army arrived at its destination after more than half a year: a large city in the westernmost part of the Blue Feather Empire, not too far from the front lines. The main function of this city was to gather supplies from various regions and transport them to the battlefield for military consumption.

Messenger cavalry had brought news of this army's arrival to the city several days earlier, giving the garrison troops time to prepare. Cavalry in uniform iron armor rode out from the city and, led by a middle-aged officer, found the legion commander to conduct the handover.

Another army of over a hundred thousand marched out of the city before them. They did not choose to return to the imperial capital via the direction Shaoke's army had come from but selected another route instead. Seeing their choice, Shaoke suddenly imagined a scene of thousands of warriors, their auras erupting, swinging axes to chop down trees. This made him chuckle involuntarily.

"What's wrong?" Mage Yisier, who was sitting close to Shaoke, whispered, hoping he would tell her the reason. The female mages in the carriage also urged him to explain why he was laughing, as they had rarely seen him smile in all the time they had known him.

After a moment's hesitation, he finally shared what he had just imagined, which also elicited laughter from the female mages. As the story spread, some mages in the mage contingent couldn't help but laugh a few times.

Indeed, those warriors, even high-rank warriors, under the legion commander's orders, had to take on the task of clearing roads. This was quite uncomfortable for warriors accustomed to cutting off heads or cleaving bodies. Although they complained, they loyally carried out the orders. After all, doing such tasks repeatedly would eventually make them accustomed to it.

"Be careful, or the Roaring Legion might twist your head off," the sleazy officer, who was admiring the spectacular scene of the army entering and leaving the city, warned Shaoke. "Our legion is arguably the most unreasonable, but their legion is the most hot-tempered. If they hear you, they'll definitely come to fight you." He then laughed nervously a few times. "But that's the reality. Even if we don't discuss it, they'll still have to clear the roads."

A high-ranking mage humorously interjected, "Poor warriors. I hope they won't blast the road surfaces into deep craters this time." With that, the mage also laughed.

Large merchant caravans waited quietly outside the city for the army to enter and exit. Only after Shaoke and the others entered the city did the merchant caravans follow, protected by mercenaries and guards.

The army was divided into four parts, stationed near the city walls, and the mages were also split into four groups. However, the sleazy officer still showed consideration for Shaoke by assigning Mage Roman and the female practitioners from her carriage to the same camp as Shaoke. According to the sleazy officer, "I really like mages who extort people, and I especially like someone as violent as you. But your strength is still a bit weak." Of course, these words displeased Shaoke, but since they were true, he couldn't find any excuse to refute them.

Life in the military camp was quite monotonous, at least in Shaoke's opinion. Although the mages didn't need to patrol the city to maintain order, the legion commander often sent documents to them, hoping they could provide opinions different from those of his advisors. Of course, the mages' insights were rarely approved by the legion commander, as many mages, despite their extensive knowledge, lacked practical experience, making their suggestions seem rather laughable. However, the legion commander continued this practice, hoping to find more reasonable insights from these knowledgeable mages, which could then be supplemented or modified by his advisors to implement his policies.

Shaoke also had such tasks, mainly reviewing work related to road construction and crop planting. Occasionally, there were other issues as well.

Although this work was quite taxing for the mages, the workload wasn't heavy, and the mages had grown accustomed to this military camp lifestyle, so no special situations arose.

One day, nearly half a year after Shaoke and the others had entered the city, just after Shaoke finished meditating, Mage Roman found him in his small room. "Xueye, I'm about to undergo my class change. This time, I'll become a true alchemist," she said, her face flushed with excitement. "Wish me luck!"