Mage? Spell Engineer!.

Chapter 586: Innocence is not a compliment
Richard waved his hand, and the emperor's handwritten letter turned to ashes.

"Do you think a naive person can be a good monarch?" Richard narrowed his eyes and looked towards the razed city.

Franz shook his head firmly: "Definitely not."

"Why?" Richard wanted to hear the reason.

“Well… when I was in the military academy, my classmates and instructors all liked that Your Majesty was a ruthless person, ruthless to the civil officials and nobles, and ruthless to the enemy countries.

“If he’s naive, he’d probably say it’s not cruel enough.

"I don't care about anything else. I just know that if the army thinks the emperor is incompetent, it will definitely be a bad and dangerous situation."

"Maybe, but not necessarily. There is a saying that naive people can also be cruel." Richard thought about the destruction of a city, and the emperor must have been fully aware of it, or even did it on purpose.

William II, a prince with many characteristics, including naivety, cowardice, cruelty, irritability, high self-esteem, and a little cleverness. He was not ready to inherit the empire. Perhaps he realized this and chose to retreat in the end to preserve his base.

Richard thought of a second question: "Can a naive person become a good general?"

Franz stroked his half-grown beard and said, "What exactly is naivety? Not being ruthless enough to the enemy, and not being ruthless enough to our own people?"

“How do you know how to be so ruthless…” Richard began to suspect that he had received some strange ruthless education in the military academy: “You can say that he is a person who often fantasizes, and his fantasies are all good.”

"Oh, that's not allowed. The instructor said that we can't think too highly of us students. When we lead troops to fight in the future, we can't think too highly of our subordinates.

"You have to think of everything in the worst way, so that you can have a good result." Franz suddenly said, "General, are you saying that you are naive?"

Before Richard could speak, Franz quickly said, “It’s better to be naive.

"Those instructors are too perverted, and so are the other commanders. Only you are very kind to our subordinates."

"Your instructor is right. A general cannot be too nice to his subordinates. Otherwise, they will become like you, full of nonsense and not knowing how to respect their superiors."

"I'm sorry. I thought you were just like Big Brother."

"Rorschach?"

"The wizard named Andrew Lie told me that the eldest brother is very, very kind to his younger brothers, and no one would be unhappy to follow him.

"But the eldest brother is particularly cruel to those he dislikes. If he targets someone, he will use both overt and covert means to kill them. They will either suffer a mental or physical breakdown, or their family will be destroyed."

During the cooperation with the Forest Tower, Andre occasionally traveled between the two towers and sent large equipment to Bayern. Rorschach would ask Andre to bring some food, drinks and money to Franz on the way.

Andre has been obsessed with gang novels lately, and has succeeded in instilling some weird things in his big brother's little brother.

If Rorschach knew that Franz described himself as a gangster boss or the leader of Lanster, he would definitely kick Andre along with him.

Richard was also amused: "Your elder brother is amazing. He is kind to his own people and cruel to his enemies. Everyone knows this, but it is not easy to do it.

"The more people we have, the better, provided that there are enough benefits to distribute, and that they are distributed well so that most people are convinced.

"To be ruthless to the enemy requires absolute power. Otherwise, what's the point of empty talk? You still have to compromise in the end."

"Oh" Franz seemed to understand a little, but also seemed not to understand.

The Tower of First Fire. Although it was covered in ice and snow, the heat from the tower revealed a patch of tundra around it, and some animals moved around cautiously and greedily.

Suddenly, these animals seemed to sense something, looked around in panic, and then scattered.

At the bottom of the tower, the first flame suddenly swayed violently, as if it would go out at any moment. There were not many mages left in the tower, and the remaining mages frantically adjusted the gas supply at the bottom of the furnace.

The tower was filled with brass tubes and circuits that operated in perfect order, flickering with the rise and fall of the flames. These facilities, and even the entire tower, were built around the legendary First Fire.

It looks like a branch that will never burn out. It is said to be a sacred wood from the mountain of heaven. It was struck by the first thunder created by the Creator, producing fire, and was then stolen by a demigod hero and given to mankind.

The devices surrounding it not only provide more gas to maintain combustion, but also amplify its effects, obtaining heat, sacred properties, etc.

"Abnormal fluctuations in magic power!"

“The temperature is dropping!!”

Everyone's spirits were instantly tense; their most important mission was to protect the fire.

It is not only the node of surrounding magic power, but also the core of the unique spells of the Tower of First Fire.

Poof. It really went out.

The mages who witnessed this historic moment were all frozen in place. They could not understand why this happened, and could not imagine that the first fire that had lasted for endless years and was almost as old as the history of intelligent life would be extinguished in their hands.

Then the fire started to spark, and the hope in everyone's heart was ignited. Could it be that the fire would be rekindled?

It would be great if that were the case. We should just pretend that nothing happened until Master Sakya comes back. We still need to make a report, but it won't be a big problem by then.

According to the records of the Tower of First Fire, the fire does have periods of weakness, especially during the wars between gods, and there are also times when it is active. In short, every change means that something big is happening in the world.

Unfortunately, it did not rise as they expected. Instead, the surface of the fire gradually turned grayish white, which was a sign of cooling and burning out.

When many spellcasters were in extreme despair, something worse than the extinguishing of the fire happened - its gray surface cracked and a sticky black liquid flowed out.

The moment these liquids appeared, they evaporated at an extremely fast speed. Before anyone could react, some of them inhaled them, some were sprayed all over their chests. All skin that was exposed and came into contact with the special vapor rotted instantly.

Looking at the original location of the fire, the black water had melted through the base of the tower, leaving only a strange, deep well, which seemed to lead directly to an endless abyss.

The screams of "Ah" continued uninterrupted. The other mages and apprentices in the tower who had survived the first disaster immediately arranged for protection for themselves and tried to launch a rescue operation at the same time.

All this was in vain. They didn't expect that the second catastrophe would come soon. The fire they wanted came back, but this time it was the underworld fire from the abyss.

It was cold and thick, just like the flame on the polluted archmage, alternating between dark blue and emerald green, quickly filling the entire tower and beginning to leak out to the outside world along with the refined remains of the spellcaster.

With the original site of the Tower of First Flame as the center, spider-web-like cracks appeared on the icy tundra, with flames crawling and flowing between the cracks.

All living creatures will be burned and twisted wherever they pass. They will not be able to die completely, and will be burned and healed in the flames again and again. There are also many mage apprentices blending with each other, and now moose, snow rabbits and other cold-zone creatures are joining in, giving birth to monsters that have lost their fixed form.

The world has another wound.

There was more than one crack. In the former central city of Opfer, which had just been plowed by artillery fire, angry roars came from the ground again.

(End of this chapter)