When A Mage Revolts

Benjamin’s preparations took about a week.

The mages successfully spread out across various cities disguised as hunters, farmers and merchants. One week was not long but it was just enough time for them to blend in with the locals and familiarize themselves with the city.

News from all over the country was travelling through the magic tool and everything seemed to be going smoothly. Benjamin was relieved.

Usually, at this point, he would be afraid that his subordinates may accidentally leak something to the Church. But because of his earlier precautions, the damage would be mitigated even if they were indeed compromised.

However, it seemed that the Church had their mind elsewhere at the moment.

Although the news has yet to spread among the public, Miles had informed Benjamin that he had just assassinated eight priest leaders. Now the Church was in chaos; the King confirmed this by mentioning that even the bishop has looked lethargic over the past few days.

But Benjamin could only respond harshly, "Only eight? No can do, do you know how many I killed in Fereldan?"

"… You’re the boss."

Miles was rendered speechless.

Anyway, the continuous deaths of the priests had put a lot of pressure on the Church. Rumour has it that the Church even started to suspect that Benjamin had arrived at Carretas and so had laid out multiples traps in hopes of capturing him. It was a shame, however, that the assassinations this time were not carried out by Benjamin.

The traps that the Church set up were useless and Miles had managed to kill several more priests before the Church finally realized that this was a totally new enemy.

However, the assassinations would stop here. The Church had increased their defences and Miles had also indicated that any further assassinations might reveal clues about the King, which caused Benjamin to cease the operation.

But, Benjamin was already quite satisfied with the result.

The Church’s attention was now diverted, and the priests were living in such a paranoid state. This allowed Benjamin to set up his base in Carretas relatively easily.

The Declaration of the Freedom of Magic 2.0’s preliminary compilation was done and officially went into printing. This edition was completely different from its predecessor. If not inspected closely, one could easily dismiss it as a mere comic. Most of the booklet was composed of-of drawings with simple descriptions to convey the complex information within, like the internal strength chart.

As for the incantations, Frank’s research hit a dead end. In the end, he could only describe six incantations, one from each of the light, dark, water, earth, fire and wind elements using pictographs. The rest of the incantations were written using regular alphabets.

But…

That’s right, they even included the Divine Arts in the book and renamed it light magic.

Apart from the numerous illustrations in the 2.0 version, this would be the main difference between the two editions.

In terms of attributes, the two belonged to one essence. Only after years of separation did Divine Arts start to develop its own traits separate from the original pool of light magic. Benjamin was not lying about this and felt that it was a crucial point in winning the locals over.

He was also filled with anticipation for the Church’s reaction once they read this information.

Of course, adding light magic into the mix was just to dig at the Church. The Church had always treated their ‘Divine Arts’ as a treasure and would constantly go on about how "one must have devout faith to gain such power" in order to make the divine arts seem mysterious and help increase their authority.

What Benjamin wanted to do now was tear off that deceiving mask from the Church’s face.

There was no need for devout faith or a pure heart. As long as one had talent, then they could use even the most basic lightning spell — or as the Church called it, the "blazing holy light".

Benjamin wanted to prove to the whole world that there was nothing special about magic, and nothing great about the divine arts – it was all just man’s natural talent at play.

This point had a more subversive meaning than simply to popularize magic in the declaration 2.0.

After the compilation of the booklet was completed, Benjamin was cautious with how he printed it. The situation was different from before and required a high volume of issues. Initially, Benjamin had hoped that they could print a hundred thousand books but due technical issues, they had to settle for ten thousand.

If they tried to print a hundred thousand copies of it anywhere, the Church would instantly realize that something was amiss.

And so, they used all kinds of alias and fake identities to contact printshops nationwide before finally managing to print a total of ten thousand new editions of the Declaration of the Freedom of Magic. The King had also provided them with funds to help lighten the financial strain on the group.

The entire printing process took another week. Throughout the week, Benjamin had literally travelled through the entirety of Carretas to confirm the situation in each city so that he could decide on a distribution plan.

They decided to start with the taverns.

The taverns were the common social hangout for commoners, under this environment, there would be nothing suspicious about making small talk with strangers. In addition to this, those who went to taverns were normally open-minded and willing to accept new things.

"Hey bro, do you want to be a mage?"

"What… M-me? I can be a mage?"

"I’m not cheating you, take this book home you and practice for a couple of days. You might end up being a real mage! But, even if you don’t have the talent for it, you should let your children at home try it out – who knows what will happen then."

"Is this for real… How much for the book?"

"It’s free. All you have to do is take it. You can use it to balance your table legs and only read it when you’re bored. But when you do, you might find a pleasant surprise."

"That great? Don’t lie to me…"

After the battle experience in Fereldan, Benjamin’s subordinates had been nurtured into fast-talking salesmen. The mystical vibe of magic, coupled with the "it’s free anyway" mentality made the distribution process quite smooth.

Nine out of ten civilians would accept the book and once in a while someone would pipe up with a "Please let me have a few more copies for my friends."

Magic was a legendary power and having the ability to possess it was simply an opportunity that people couldn't refuse. The Church’s brainwashing had only just begun but their holier than thou attitude prevented them from finding their way into a tavern.

But just in case, the mages were cautious with their actions and they would change their venue after distributing each book, and their disguise every couple of days.

But despite all this, the Church was quick to catch on.

"Your Excellency, tonight at the Fire Stove Tavern, south of Gealorre, a few unknown foreigners were distributing this among the commoners. It feels fishy."

A spy dressed as a fisherman entered the palace and handed the new edition of the Declaration of the Freedom of Magic to the bishop in front of him.

The unfamiliar bishop frowned and took the booklet. He took a glance and immediately the colour of his face changed.

"Declaration of the Freedom of Magic… The foreigners have come from Rayleigh!"

He quickly flipped open the pages and looked inside. The more he read, the darker his expression became.

And when he read the section about the light magic.

RIP.

At that moment, his face turned purple and he looked ready to kill somebody. He grabbed the book and tore it in half with his bare hands.

"Sinner! How can he speak such blasphemy? This unforgivable sinner!"

The spy was clearly taken aback by the bishop’s enraged state.

"Yo-your excellency?"

The bishop took a deep breath and returned to his senses. He spoke with a deep tone, "Inform your companions. Investigate the person who had distributed this book and find their leader and hideout. Be careful and don’t be hasty to act. Most importantly, do not let them detect you."

The spy quickly nodded.

"Yes, Your Excellency."

The spy left in a rush and the bishop returned his gaze to the ripped-up booklet on the ground. Immediately, his eyes glowed with anger and he summoned a blazing fire to burn it – and the ground beneath it – to ashes.