When A Mage Revolts

Benjamin’s smiled vanished and he asked sternly, "What do you mean?"

"When I was out hunting the remnants of the Church down, I accidentally found this letter." As he said this, Mikel took out a letter from his pocket and passed it to Benjamin, "You will understand after you read it."

Benjamin drew a deep breath, then opened the letter.

The contents of the letter were short – and it was all about the Academy of Magic. Their position, the academy’s surface area, their manpower, their relations with other countries...the information was not detailed, but all of it was supposed to be classified.

Was this... the results of Church’s investigation into them?

He knew that the Academy fame was so great that the Church had no choice but to take notice. But the first day of class was still one month away, yet the Church’s reports were already so detailed. He felt uneasy at the discovery.

What was the Church planning?

After thinking for a while, he asked Mikel with a serious face, "Where did you stumble upon this letter?"

"From a priest." Mikel replied, "They were probably preparing to send this letter, but I arrived before they got the opportunity to. However, don’t get too happy, I’m sure other priests have the same report which they must have already sent to Helius."

"You don’t say?" Benjamin shook his head and said, "What I mean is, did you notice any other signs? Like any clues about what the Church was planning?"

Mikel shook his head, "This I do not know. I’m just here to remind you to be careful."

"...Alright."

Benjamin was helpless, but a reminder was better than nothing.

It was time to get back to business after enjoying some temporary peace. The Church’s shadow was lurking everywhere, he couldn’t afford to let his guard down.

"I don’t have anything to do for now, so I will stay in the town for a while. If you need me, I can extend you my help." Mikel said while rubbing his thumb and index finger together, "But...you should know, it’s not going to be free."

"Whatever."

Benjamin felt that would not have the money to hire Mikel anyway.

But... he suddenly had an interesting idea.

"There’s a new potion mage in town, he’s staying in a building on the 3rd Street of the Mages’ Quarters. He’s heard of your constitution and seemed to have expressed interest in your services. If you’re interested, you can go visit him."

The academy was not just for training mages, it was also a magical research laboratory. Anti-Magical Flesh was something that was extremely rare, so opportunities to study it did not come by very often.

The old man was still researching the Queen’s magical potion but had yet to find anything. Because of this, he was getting grumpier by the second; it felt as though he would throw in the towel any day now - the ten ‘helpers’ that were under him were living in a constant state of restlessness.

In truth, Benjamin had yet to mention the anti-magical flesh to the old man, but he knew that the old man would be interested!

Mikel was here anyway, so he might as well use the old man as an excuse to get him to stay. In short, he just needed to keep the old man busy with work for a long time; hopefully, he’d get used to the environment and choose not to leave.

"You’re always plotting something, I can’t detect an ounce of honesty in you." The System could not help but say.

"Thanks for your acknowledgement."

After ending his chat with the System, Benjamin’s focus came back to reality. He saw that Mikel seemed to be reluctant.

"That’s alright, this thing isn’t really worth researching on."

But Benjamin was hearing none of it as he continued on, "He’s already an old man, who knows how long he has to live. All he longs to do is to research new things. Won’t you help him out?"

"..."

"I’ll take your silence as a yes, then! Oh right, I have things to settle, so I have to go now. Remember to find time to visit that potion mage!"

"..."

Mikel was stunned by Benjamin’s fast talk and did not have time to react. He stood there speechless as Benjamin quickly flew out of the school building. In seconds, there was no trace of him anymore.

"Really... whatever." Mikel shook his head at the conversation.

A commotion came from the classroom above him. Realizing that the mages’ argument has ended, Mikel turned around and vanished down a corridor.

A few days later.

"This should do. We have a secret mage police patrol, disguised as civilians going around the Academy." Varys reported to Benjamin, "These people do not want to be teachers and are too experienced to sit still in class. They’re bored as hell anyway, so we might as well make them do it."

Benjamin nodded.

Creating a secret patrol squad would ensure the safety of the students. If the Church really planned on doing something, they would have the upper-hand.

He felt more at ease.

"Well, how're things with the opening-day ceremony?" Thinking of this, he asked.

"Still under preparation." Varys took out a small book and flipped it open, "The invitations have been sent out and all the important figures from each country have been included, Icor was also given one. I expect most of them to arrive in half a month, but…. I fear there is not enough time for renovations. How about we change a venue?"

"How can we do that? We’ve already advertised the grand occasion, we can’t do something like that so last minute," Benjamin shook his head and said, "Never mind, the students are coming five days before classes start right? Ask them to help out, count it as co-curricular activity and give them extra marks."

"Helping out with decorating a hall and getting marks...that doesn’t sound right does it?"

"Just give them zero point five marks."

"...alright."

After this, Varys continued rattling off reports about the academy to Benjamin, who promptly answered all of them. Once he was satisfied, he left the room to attend to more matters.

As he watched Varys’ figure quickly departing, Benjamin could not help but exclaim aloud that he was the perfect choice for dean.

But... there was only half a month to go before the academy would start its first semester.

Thinking of this, Benjamin clenched his wrist, feeling both excited and emotional. Like drafted soldiers who had gone through gruelling training for their first battle, T hey had prepared for all of this for too long. They were all rearing to go.

He walked out of the headmaster’s office and stood on the balcony, looking over the crowded city. He stared down at bustling figures below him and whispered.

"It’s finally my turn to change the world."