When A Mage Revolts

Initially, the middle-aged mage was reluctant to share the secret contact method, but after repeated urgings from Benjamin, he finally gave in.

"There’s a priest disguised as a carpenter within the borders of Icor. He is active around Regina, and is a spy from the Church tasked to keep an eye on Icor. He’s also one of us, and is responsible for all information that flow to us in the Kingdom."

Benjamin arched his eyebrows. So it was confirmed that there were indeed priests that work for them for money.

"Is that person trustworthy?" Benjamin asked. "After all, he’s a priest; aren’t you afraid that he would leak the information to the Church so that they could capture you once and for all?"

"I don’t really know about his background, but Sir Accius believes him. Besides, he did safely send us out of the Crusaders Gateway." The middle-aged mage inhaled. "I ask for you to not spread this news as a fellow mage. If the Church got hold of this, we won’t live well either."

Benjamin nodded stoically.

"I know who is our biggest enemy."

Since these mages could still stand here, it meant that the priest was not double-crossing. There was no point for him to be antsy about it anymore. After he got the detailed location from the middle-aged mage, Benjamin turned and left. He wrote a simple letter to the turncoat priest.

He did not elaborate much. In the letter, he just stated that the mages were all in his hands now, and if the Fulners wanted them back, he would need to send some people over to offer an explanation for the kidnapping issue.

Of course, Benjamin had everything planned out already. Those people were rich, so he could probably earn a fortune out of the ransom money. Accius must have spent a lot of effort to raise these mages, and Benjamin expect to get a huge amount of money from them.

What a great day.

After the letter was delivered, he waited patiently for the response from the Kingdom of Helius. At the same time, the students that continued their practical checked in with the Transmission Woodpiece. They were safe.

They have gotten the mission from the Mercenary Association, and they were ready to start it. Relief flooded Benjamin when he received the news.

The Academy operated as usual. Varys would send in a daily report every day, and even if Benjamin would not read it in detail, but he could conclude that they were on the right track.

Besides that, the turbulent road in researching for the antidote for the Queen’s potion finally ended.

"You…. Do you still remember me?"

In the basement of the Potions Department, Benjamin waved tentatively at the mages imprisoned who lost their memory.

".....Mage Benjamin. Of course I remember you." The mage stared at him, his face complicated. "Her Highness the Queen has you on the wanted list. I used to believe everything on the wanted poster, but…. I no longer know what I should believe."

Benjamin were taken aback by surprise.

What happened? He was totally different from what he was before.

"The loss of memory was caused by the clashing between two solutions that caused them immense mental pressure." The old man stood beside Benjamin and explained the situation. "Thus, I concocted some special potions to heal their mental state, and he seemed to have slowly remembered his past experience after he took it for half a day."

"However… He does not seem to be the same person as he was before."

The old man was impatient when he replied. "That was because the suggestion no longer worked on them. They finally realized the truth about the Mage Guild, and as the suggestion was buried within them for so long, it was natural for a total change in behavior when it was successfully removed."

"Is that so?" Benjamin nodded in understanding as his eyes returned to these imprisoned mages.

"I hope you would not hold a grudge against us for what happened today. We only hope to provide an antidote to the Queen’s potion, so that the mages in Icor could finally be free again."

The expression on the imprisoned mage’s face was still complicated.

".... You should know that even if we no longer serve the Queen, we would not come to work for you either."

Benjamin smiled as he nodded.

"I’m not interested in that," he laughed, "Before I left Regina, I promised your Guild Master that I will return one day to help him release the Mage Guild from the controls of the Queen. I’m doing this just to honor my promise."

The prisoner went quiet once again after he heard Benjamin’s reply.

Benjamin just shrugged. "With that, the process in researching for the antidote for the potion finally ended. We don’t need you anymore. You’re free to leave," Benjamin said to the prisoner, "You’re not under the influence of the potion anymore, so you wouldn’t ignorantly serve the Queen anymore, no?"

The prisoner nodded after a long silence.

The dozen of mages from Icor who were imprisoned underground were released from the Academy after all of them were no longer under the influence of the potion. There were quite a large number of mages captured within the Academy now, and an extra prisoner meant an extra mouth to feed. There was no point for Benjamin to keep them locked up anyways.

These mages probably hated him after the long period of imprisonment. However, Benjamin did not care. He lost count of the number of people who hated him in this world, and since there was no way for him to kill them all, he might as well just leave them be.

After all, Benjamin had so much better things to do.

Since the antidote was completed, it was time for it to be put into use. He gathered a number of the mages in the Academy to discuss how to best circulate the antidote so that everyone in the Mage Guild would drink it.

This was a major thing. If they actually started the plan, it meant that they are openly rebelling against the Queen, and the Queen would most definitely strike back. At that time, they would need to face the heavy retaliation from the Queen, and thus they really needed to contemplate their actions before everything else.

"I feel like…. I feel like we should put this on the backburner. The Academy has just been established for a year, and everything was still unstable. If we start going against the Queen now, there’s no confirmation that there wouldn’t be any accidents. We should wait until everything’s on track before we move on." Varys suggested.

"It isn’t that complicated, really. Why don’t we just throw the antidote into their water? As long as everyone in the Mage Guild drinks it, who would be left to listen to what the Queen has to say? It might even cause a riot, and the Queen might lose her power. She wouldn’t even be considered a threat, then." That was what Frank had to say.

"Isn’t that too simple? Would the Queen not realize if we laced everyone’s water with the antidote? We should find a way to avoid detection from the Queen, and let everyone drink the antidote without them noticing."

"I feel like we should contact the Guild Master, and tell him about the prescriptions for the antidote and the mental revival potion. Maybe he’ll have a plan himself and there would be no need for us to worry…."

Everyone’s opinions on this matter was quite divided. Some of them wanted to delay it, since the Academy still has classes going on, and there was already a shortage of manpower in the place. If people were going to be mobilized for the plan, the syllabus will be delayed, and these teachers was not very willing.

However, Benjamin did not want to wait.

The worries would only worsen with time, and they had no idea what the Queen was doing. If the Queen heard of something about them, she would probably take the first move. Besides, the unnatural mage circle in Icor should never continue. If they could defeat the Queen as soon as possible, the Academy could expand their recruitment drive over in Icor openly.

"....We’ll stop here for today. I’ll contact the Guild Master for the Mage Guild, and listen to whatever he have to say. Then, we’ll decide."

There was no results from the discussion. Benjamin could only wave dismissively, perplexed.