When A Mage Revolts

"..."

After being sneered at continuously by Benjamin, Accius was speechless for a while.

"What’s wrong? Do you not want to explain the reason why you kidnapped my students?" After looking at the situation, Benjamin shook his head and said, "Those mages that you sent are now locked up in the academy, I’ll won’t let anyone go if you don’t clear things out now."

"It’s not really a kidnap, I was hoping that they could help me out..."

"What do you mean?"

Accius sighed and spoke solemnly, "I’m not sure if Sir knows about what has is happening in the Kingdom recently. However, after destroying the Academy of Silence, the Church increased their efforts to capture the mages who are hiding among the people. Many of the nobles were dragged into this and tied to the stake as well. Right now, life in the Kingdom... Is not going very well."

Upon hearing this, Benjamin shrugged, "What does this have to do with kidnapping my students?"

Accius showed a troubled look and said, "I’m really asking for your forgiveness, it was a careless mistake of mine. After all, I have so many mages under me, the Church would definitely have heard about this. If I don’t make some sacrifices, then you know what will happen as well."

Benjamin frowned. However, he immediately recalled about what had happened in the theatre in the past and was taken aback.

This guy... wanted to make his students scapegoats for those mages!

After realizing this, Benjamin took a deep breath and said, "Accius Fulner, you should understand that this is my territory. Even if you are the greatest dignitary in the Kingdom of Helius, I can easily take your life in this tiny room here and no one outside will know a thing."

"I understand..."

Accius shut his eyes and took a deep breath. Suddenly, he took out a bag the size of a fist from his pocket and put it on the table in the Director’s room.

Benjamin snorted at the sight of it.

"Mister Director, this is the private collection of elemental crystal belonging to the Fulner family." Upon looking at how things were going, Accius immediately opened the bag and pulled out two glowing stones, "I’ve only brought two of them today, but we have a few hundred crystals of this size."

After hearing this, Benjamin glanced at those crystals but still remained silent.

Accius continued on, "Sir, if you’re willing to help us, our entire collection of elemental crystals will be yours!"

While he said this, he hesitated and added quickly, thinking that it might not be enough, "In addition to this, we’re willing to compensate you five thousand gold to ask of your forgiveness!"

Upon hearing all that he said, Benjamin rubbed his chin and maintained his poker face.

"Twenty thousand gold." A moment of silence later, he suddenly said.

"Huh..." Accius looked troubled and said, "Even though we have quite a number of properties, twenty thousand gold is too..."

Benjamin cut him off instead and said, "Twenty-five thousand gold."

"This... How about this, I’ll give you six thousand gold."

"Thirty thousand gold."

"You’re the director of an academy, you can’t do this. Don’t you want to portray yourself as a just and fair role model for your students? This..."

"Thirty-five thousand gold."

"You..."

After seeing the trend of the bargaining, at last, Accius grit his teeth and sighed, the fat on his face shaking like pudding, "Alright the initial price you stated, twenty thousand gold, I don’t have any more than that!"

Benjamin finally showed the faintest traces of a smile.

"Deal."

Although he was enraged about the fact that Accius wanted to turn his students into scapegoats, seeing as how he was begging for help so humbly and was willing to compensate them for damages, Benjamin decided to let him go.

Besides... twenty thousand was a sh*t ton!

Although Benjamin kept a poker face, he almost laughed out loud at the deal.

"Since we’ve agreed on a deal, can you please release those mages first?" Upon hearing this, Accius asked carefully.

Benjamin nodded.

"Aside from that... I really hope that you as the director can help our situation in the Kingdom of Helius." Accius followed up with another question, "The truth is, a lot of the nobles have been secretly feeling unsatisfied towards the rule of the Church. Didn’t the Church send someone to attack your academy during the opening ceremony? We should join forces, then we will be able to properly resist the Church!"

Benjamin thought for a while and asked, "What do you want?"

Truthfully, although there had always a gap between them, they still had same interests, so it was possible for them to be on the same side. One day, they would launch a counterattack on the Kingdom of Helius, if the nobles inside the Kingdom were willing to help them, then it would really be of great help.

He did not suspect Accius of trying to trick him. There had always been conflicts between the nobles and the Church, what more the Fulner family had secretly kept many mages. Since Accius would never side with the Church, Benjamin was not too worried.

Therefore, he felt that Accius was trustable.

"When I kidnapped your students, I wasn’t thinking of making them into scapegoats. I was only hoping that they could help us divert the Church’s attention so that we could get some breathing space." Accius answered, "Previously, a strange person sneaked into the Church and drained a lot of their energy. After a short while, that person disappeared, and the Church started taking it out their anger on us ."

Benjamin nodded his head seemingly after hearing what Accius said.

The strange person... could it be Miles?

He never thought that Miles could cause such a chaos in the borders of the Kingdom of Helius, and indirectly affected the tension between the nobles and the Church. However, that was already some time ago, how could he not be back yet?

What a mysterious guy.

"It’s not so easy to divert the attention of the Church." As he thought about the past, Benjamin said slowly, "What can we do? We have so much up on our hands as well, we’ll never be able to attract the Church’s attention for an extended period of time - unless you are requesting we launch a massive attack to the Kingdom of Helius."

Accius let out an embarrassed laugh as he replied, "We’re not counting on you to do that. The truth is, we only need four months’ time. In this four months, we can focus on what we need to do instead of being constantly suppressed by the Church as we are now."

Four months...

Benjamin started thinking.

Honestly, he was not really free right now. The Queen’s birthday was in a month’s time and they were going to liberate the mages from Icor. How would he find the time to involve himself in so many matters? Although he would love to gain support from the nobles to pave the way for the attack of the Kingdom of Helius in the future, it would still be a challenge for him to run so many plans co-currently.

Unless...

Benjamin’s skipped a beat as he formed a plan.

He could combine those two matters together.