Sin City

Ch-6 The Clan

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As Li Cha was looking at the distant Asian mountains, he learned that his father is truly a great person.

Asian mountain range is located inside the distant peninsular region, having a population exceeding over hundred thousand. Cities had been constructed as per the shape of peninsula. Northwest region is the tallest, while the southward region is imitating an arc stretching upto the Apennine sea, comprising groups of islands scattered like stars in the sky. Long and narrow band shaped cities were as if resting inside a large beast, quietly creeping between water and sky. Houses, streets and roads had been constructed in an orderly fashion. Twenty meter high city wall surrounds the city in a circular manner, protecting the citizens inside. Outside the city, there is vast agricultural territory. Wide Lain river passes through the city and empties into the Apennine sea, providing a never ending water source to the endless agricultural lands.

Asian Mountain city has a small mountain inside it, the world famous Blackrose castle is constructed precisely on top of this small mountain. It is a magnificent and gigantic structure which can easily accommodate upto more than three thousand soldiers. On every corner, above the roof of high standing towers, large and everlasting stone throwers are looking down upon the city. However, from the time of establishment of Blackrose castle, these stone throwers had never been put into use. Although, in the past, the city below had been attacked by the enemies, but they were able to advance at most up to the city walls only, thereafter forced to disperse.

Black rose castle’s defense is very advanced, however if we talk about the construction design, it is already at the very peak. Overall it is constructed according to ‘fort within fort forming complex nucleus stronghold’ type construction. At any time, it is possible to extend a shooting platform from watch towers or city walls up to the city gate, passing through like a tunnel. No less than five hard and unique sluice gates are established inside, attaining a depth of ten meters. Furthermore, lots and lots of eyes have been deployed which cannot be seen directly.

When black rose castle had just been constructed, it had a reputation of  requiring only a thousand qualified soldiers to defend. Under sufficient reinforcements, breaching it was absolutely impossible.

Many travelers with all sorts of identities had come to this city in the past, all of them bearing the same cause. After seeing this odd monster controlling the city from above, they had no choice but to acknowledge the architect of Black Rose castle as well as crazily praise him. Once, a noble general who was unwilling to disclose his name and surname was invited to the castle to bypass the defense mechanisms in front of him for a drill. The conclusion was, even if a batch of fifty thousand soldiers along with heavy besieging equipment are dispatched, taking down the castle would still require to pay a disastrous cost.

However she had never truly endured the flames of war before, because there had never been a castle lord who prefer defence. If soldiers are in absolute disadvantage, they are even more willing to pick unbounded plains or deep mountains as the field of action and moreover they would be always victorious.

Even if entire Divine Alliance is taken into account, insanity of Archimonde clan is known to everyone without any exception.

No one is willing to fight with a madman. What’s more is, within this crazy family, several geniuses will always appear from time to time. Once, the biggest enemy of Archimonde clan, Duke Joseph of Lei Nong peninsula  regretfully said “When a madman and a genius combine together, the ability to bring forth destruction is not added together, instead is multiplied.”

When Duke Joseph spoke these words, his main force of twenty thousand was just beaten by ten thousand elites of Archimonde clan in a very long and cruel battle. The force escaped did not even amount to two thousand. Moreover, forces under the command of ‘son of iron’ Joseph is anything but ordinary, being ranked among the top grade forces of entire continent.

Going through a development of several hundred years, members of Archimonde clan include two marquis and seven counts, not to say, viscounts and barons are as many as dogs and the difference between them is also not much. Territory owned adding up to be over hundred thousand square kilometer. If entire divine alliance is considered, Archimonde clan’s history is not considered that long, however their strength is definitely not weak. It is one of the factions that hold the balance of power. Only thing odd is that, if it was any other family with this much nobility present, a Duke would have already appeared or possibly even an Archduke. However the highest grade of nobility present in Archimonde clan is merely Marquis. It must be known that what Archimonde clan doesn’t lack the most is precisely the military power and strong people. They have formidable magicians, high grade soldiers and even many professionals of all kinds of bizarre categories such as dragon-veined magicians, infernal knights, shadow priests and whatnot. Nuo Lan De continent is not at peaceful all, even saying that  ‘flames of war is burning all over’ is pretty normal. Fraction of the territory of continent occupied by Human race  is not even half, being always engaged in war with numerous other races, fighting for the existing space.

The degree of ‘eagerness to fight’ of humans is perhaps not less than that of fiends. They not only fight with different races, but also fight endlessly within themselves. The flames of war are not only burning in just Nuo Lan De continent, but have also propagated up to the deepest parts of oceans as well as many different planes.

Under this kind of chaos and confusion, producing a Duchy or even a  Archduchy is actually not at all difficult for several capable individuals possessing Archimonde clan. As long as they concentrate their resources on expansion, getting sufficient land from different tribes, and moreover  establishing complete administration, economy and judiciary system is pretty easy. If profits from this plan is uniformly distributed within the clan,then within two years, a Duke would probably rise. In Divine alliance, actually at least half of the Dukes have have appeared this way. Therefore, nobles of other countries thinks that the Divine Alliance empire is the headquarters of upstarts and bumpkins and moreover the emperor of this empire is the biggest upstart among these. However, anything after reaching a certain extent will definitely go through a fundamental change, ‘suddenly getting rich’ is also like this. The matter of Divine alliance’s imperial family’s ‘suddenly getting rich’ basically crossed the critical point of the mental limit of people, as a result it gained the respect of majority of old school nobles.

‘Suddenly getting rich’ extent of Archimonde clan is not inferior at all, only, their history is too short. Within this short history, their accumulated strength and wealth is not enough and moreover, they are too crazy, therefore they are unable to gain respect.

The current chief of Archimonde clan Ge Dun Marquis in itself is a live example of ‘suddenly getting rich’. He started to train just recently. Fifteen years ago, he was a merely a third-level* beginner soldier. Immediately after, emerging out as a naturally talented individual in terms of strength and leadership. Ten years ago, he took over the ‘Eternal Night Forest’ elf king’s court, hence shaking the entire divine alliance. People daring to attack elf territory are not few, however leading an insignificant unit of merely fifty knights and thousand miscellaneous soldiers while penetrating deeply into Eternal Night Forest, Ge Dun is the sole individual. What’s more, he actually succeeded!

(Tl: *i am not sure if author is saying that he was a third level as in third class rookie or literally third level of soldier, as in power level)

At present,at an age of just thirty three years, he became a Marquis. Furthermore took black rose ancient castle as residence and obtained Asian mountains as the territory of Archimonde clan’s head.

Praises of his experiences coming out from people’s mouth sound as a legend, a legend which is still being written. Just the absolute influence of Ge Dun Marquis on it’s own has conquered many other territories other than black rose castle. However, other members of the clan in normal times absolutely refuse to listen to his command. If not for the existence of black rose castle and Asian mountains, title of clan chief would be even more of just a title.

A historian specializing in ancestry of Archimonde clan arrived at a conclusion:  The reason this family haven’t produced an archduke lies within the flowing independence and rebellion in their blood vessels. Every single individual is unwilling to serve under any other person, even if that person is his own father.

This is not a well knitted argument. Scholar which came to this conclusion is not that deeply knowledgeable, moreover he didn’t had any fame. In fact, if he was not able to exchange the achievement of his study with financial aid from some noble in Archimode clan, he might even be  stranded on streets. If he truly had some original work, it was unlikely that he would research such an odd family. And the conclusion of scholar was exactly being stranded on streets, hard pressed, ill and then dead. It is said that when this report was taken to present chief of the clan at that time, he just flipped through the report and then issued an order to not provide any financial aid to him in any form. Having a tradition to rebel, this time  clan members unexpectedly obediently followed the command of clan chief.

As for the real reason, it is precisely what is written in these pilling up sheets. Even though, logic is confusing, examples are absurd and full of groundless facts and childish guesses, conclusion nevertheless is extremely correct.

From Lu Se Lan village to Asian mountains, distance is three thousand kilometers,a journey of less than half a month. En route, Mo Lee told Li Cha a lot about the matters concerning to Archimonde clan. He also told a few things about various customs and power distribution in the continent. Therefore, by the time they arrived at Asian mountains, Li Cha already knew a lot of things about clan.

Family, this is a completely new word for Li Cha. In the past, even the idea of father was indistinct for him, how can he know what a family is? But from Mo Lee’s manner, it could be seen that although he is a very formidable knight, he cares a lot about family. Here, the concept of family is very broad, not only does it include the direct descendants and cousins, in addition lower nobles and knights following the master of family are also considered as a part of family. Blood vessels relates the family, however it’s importance is not just limited to blood lines, a lot of blood vessels possess specific abilities, and combining different blood vessels might result in producing a different ability. Some blood vessel’s abilities are too strong, strong enough to make people pursue them regardless of anything. As a result, nobles and clans in Luo Lan De continent found a completely new implication: Marriage is not only for political alliances, it is also often done in order to produce strong generations.

By the time Li Cha was standing at the front of black rose castle’s door, he should already have a very deep understanding towards Archimonde clan. However Xiao Li Cha found himself even more confused. Everything in his brain seems like pieces of a shattered puzzle and Mo Lee completely lacked the mechanics to piece them together for him.