When A Mage Revolts

... Guild Master?

Upon hearing this, Benjamin could not help but take a deep breath.

Needless to say, this unknown old man who appeared out of the blue in the room should be the rumored Guild Master of that Mage Guild. Even though he had no idea how the Guild Master had appeared here, but through the Water Particle Detection, Benjamin could feel how strong the Elemental Change and Spiritual Energy on this old man was.

Virtually, Benjamin had the feeling that if the old man ever decided to fight, Benjamin probably won’t last three attacks from him.

Therefore, facing this old man who suddenly appeared, he could only take a deep breath, dismiss the Waterball in his hands and force himself to calm down. He said, "It is unexpected to meet the Guild Master of the Mage Guild at this place. Nice to meet you. May I ask for what business, Sir, that you came to visit out of the blue?"

Upon hearing this, the old man also smiled and suddenly spoke. "Answer one question of mine first. What is your name? Grant? Or Benjamin?"

...Oh?

Benjamin felt surprised in his heart.

After thinking, he showed a calm expression and answered. "My name is Benjamin. Benjamin Lithur. "

After he said this, he could see that a hint of surprise passed in the old man’s eyes. After that, probably because he knew many things related to this, the old man kept quiet for a moment, then nodded. He showed an expression as if he suddenly understood something.

"As expected, it is the usual trick played by the Church." The old man exclaimed by himself. Suddenly he lifted his gaze and looked at Benjamin. He said, "Can you tell me how exactly you produced that gigantic Waterball in Havenwright?"

Benjamin hesitated for a moment and shook his head in the end.

Putting aside whether he trusted this person or not, even if he wanted to talk about it, the process of summoning that Waterball was rather complicated and not replicable. Benjamin actually did it when he was barely conscious. It was difficult to describe the whole process accurately.

Moreover, he did not understand why the old man is asking about this.

"No, I am not probing your secrets." Upon seeing this, the old man shook his head and said, "I only wanted to know whether you used the method called by the Church as ‘Zone of Prayer’ to undergo your magic practice."

...This is?

Stunned, Benjamin nodded.

It was nothing to hide. The Church did study about that special practice method. The mage here should have records about that. The old man asking this question could mean that he already had an answer in his heart.

However, after hearing Benjamin’s words, the old man sighed all of a sudden.

"Tonight at 11pm, bring all your friends to the West Gate of Regina. Your friend that you left in the Town of Hank will be there at that time too." He gazed at Benjamin and, in a very serious tone, said, "During that time, you guys will take the carriage and leave Regina. I will send people to guide you out. In the name of the Mage Guild, the guards at the gate will not stop you."

...What did it mean?

Benjamin was perplexed, listening to him.

To be honest, he could not understand what this situation was about. Looking at it now, this Guild Master seemed like he wanted to help them to leave Icor. But, why would he help?

Moreover, looking at the stance of the old man, it was if the sky would fall if Benjamin do not leave Regina by today. What was truly happening now?

"...Thank you for your kindness. But, do you mind giving me a little explanation of what is actually going on?"

Upon hearing this, the old man fell silent for a bit, then finally nodded his head.

"It will be a long story of what happened." He hesitated for a bit as if he was thinking how to phrase his words. He spoke slowly. "I know that when you left the Kingdom of Helius and came to Icor, you wanted to look for a sanctuary that belongs to the mages. This may be disappointing for you, but actually this so-called ‘happy place’ does not exist. At least... Not in Icor."

Benjamin listened to this without speaking a word.

He knew of the conditions of mages within the borders of Icor. Originally, he thought that it was a situation where the Mage Guild monopolized everything and exploited any stray mages. But, looking at how the old man now, it seemed like there is more to the story.

"Eight years ago, I followed Her Majesty the Queen to set up a whole new Mage Guild in Icor." The old man continued. "At first, I thought I could build the strongest defense line, yet I was unable to let those mages who relied on me to have a better life. Instead, magic became a slave to politics."

Upon hearing this, with no reason at all, Benjamin suddenly thought of the occasionally-shown strange expressions of those mages protecting the Queen at the Gateway.

A slave to politics huh...

"What did the Queen do?" Thinking about this, Benjamin asked.

After hearing the question, the old man’s expression shifted a little at the moment.

"She... When she was little, she was a gentle and well-behaved little princess in the people’s hearts. She was smart, yet she was not arrogant. She followed silently behind her two brothers. When she listened to others, she would look into their eyes." There seemed to be a tone of regret in his voice. "I also do not know from where she found that weird Magic Potion formula. No... That was not a Magic Potion. It was a curse. Or a combination of both. She used that formula together with her blood and created some weird potion."

At this point, the old man paused a little and his tone turned darker. He said, "After drinking this potion, that person’s life will be somehow linked. In other words, if Her Majesty the Queen dies, that person dies too."

Upon hearing this, Benjamin could not help but frown.

A little scary...

Hearing the old man’s description, this was really similar to a curse. But, it was difficult for normal curses to produce this kind of effect. However, simply by relying on this strange potion, wanting to control so many mages in Icor might seem a little bit too difficult as well.

How did the Queen do this?

"At that time, I did not realize that Her Majesty the Queen had gathered some loyal followers among the mages. These mages drank the potion willingly and spiked the food of countless other mages with the potion through all kinds of methods." The old man voice had a hint of bitterness in its tone as he spoke. "She did it really carefully, slowly nibbling the Mage Guild away. When they realized that something was not right, all of the mages except myself had already drank this potion. After many mages found out about this, they left the Mage Guild furiously. The Queen let them go. However, when they left, the Queen sent out the mages who was loyal to her to kill all of those people. She told the whole Mage Guild about this and declared them as traitors."

Upon hearing this, Benjamin could not help but asked, "Did no one fight back?"

The old man nodded and said, "There was. But because of the potion, no one would go to kill the Queen. Sometimes, some wanted to kill her regardless of themselves getting killed in the process, but they were stopped by other mages. During that time, the mages in the Mage Guild were fighting among themselves. Even though I wanted to stop them from doing so, but there was nothing that I could do. I could not do anything to Her Majesty the Queen. Killing her meant killing every mage. So all I could do was to try to stop the mages from killing themselves."

"In the end, the rebelling mages were still the minority. After the followers of the Queen held the advantage, other mages thought that they still could live this way. Since the Queen wouldn’t really treat them like slaves, they just followed the occasional order. Slowly, they got used to this situation. For the mages that just joined the Guild, they drank the potion in pride as if this was some kind of honorable event for them. Using their life to defend Icor, to defend Her Majesty the Queen. This is what they all said. This is the declaration they made when they joined the Guild."

As he was saying, the old man sighed again. His expression was full of self-blame. As for the three mages who were disguised as soldiers, they also lowered their heads. They held their helmets and remained silent.