Chapter 408: Magic Tower

Aldric looked tired, extremely tired. He was almost forty five years old and he had been genetically gifted with good hair. He had no receding hairline and no gray hairs before this. But in just a single week, he was showing signs of rapid aging.

Some of his hair had gone completely white. His skin no longer held the youth it used to have. The wrinkles were far more apparent and his eyes were bloodshot.

Aldric took a deep breath.

"The goddess is agitated... She is angry by our failure. We just need to correct our mistakes and make her happy."

But little did he know the truth. The angel who governed iron and steel, the one who was famous among her kind and among the humans, was now practically powerless. She had been imprisoned for breaking rules and failing her mission. Their god had technically abandoned them even though it was forced upon her. She just did not have any means to communicate with them anymore. The one they were worshipping now was probably someone else entirely, or maybe no one at all.

Bishop Kael bowed his head.

"Your Highness, we have received news that Adrian has given his citizens a week-long holiday. Everyone is busy with festivities and no one is working. Do you not think this is the right time to strike? I believe he will attack us once these holidays are over."

Aldric looked at Kael.

"Gather the princes and princesses. Announce that there is going to be a competition for succession to this throne."

Somewhere far away from the Ironhold kingdom, inside the capital of Crestwall.

Roderick sat alone in his room as he read a small report.

The paper slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor and he just sat on his bed without moving a single inch.

After almost ten minutes of dead silence, he finally opened his mouth.

"He really was not bluffing," he muttered.

He stared at the wall.

"What do I even do now? What do I even do now..."

Right at that time, he sensed someone nearby. He immediately turned his head to look at the open window to see that a man was floating there.

All of Roderick’s worries disappeared for a second as he saw hope in this man. He stood up and bowed hastily.

"Elder of the Magic Tower, I did not expect you to be here. Do you need our help with anything?"

The man floated into the room from the window and stood there. He looked at Roderick calmly.

"Looks like you are pretty distraught."

Roderick nodded.

"Well, I am dealing with a few issues."

He hoped the man would ask more, but he did not.

"I want you to recruit a few people," the Elder said. "The strongest knights. I do not need mages. I need you to recruit the strongest knights you have, around ten of them. We need a group that can go into a certain place."

Roderick nodded.

"What place? Can you tell me something about that?"

The Elder just looked at him.

"It is a place where the properties of mana are different from what we are used to. Mages are not exactly a good idea to send over to that place. That is the reason why I am here."

"Okay," Roderick said. "I will select a group. Is there anything else that you wish to tell me?"

The guy looked at Roderick for a few seconds.

"Your people might die, but we want the strongest anyways. There is a limit to how many people we can send. Make up your mind, and depending on how sincere you are, we will give you great rewards. If your people succeed in the mission, the magic tower will give you a generous number of books that you can use in your magic academy."

"I will gather these people as soon as possible."

"Good. I knew I could count on you," the Elder said. He paused and smiled slightly. "It is a pity that your empire has been weakened at the moment. We could only book ten slots for you. If not, we could have booked around eighteen or twenty. But now we will have to give these slots to the other empire... an empire that you gave birth to indirectly."

Roderick let out a heavy sigh.

"Can we not talk about that, please?"

The Elder of the Magic Tower chuckled.

"I will see you later."

He vanished from the room.

Roderick let out a long sigh and rubbed his face.

’These bastards... I cannot even ask them for anything. Everything has a steep price and they are only going to use the information to exploit me even further. Just having Adrian knowing this is probably much better. As long as I stick to his rules, he will not harm anyone.’

He sat there in silence.

’Hopefully.’

He just plopped back down onto his bed in defeat.

Adrian sat in his chair as he looked down at the empty table in front of him.

There were no more reports that he had to look through. He still sat there and stared at the smooth table, completely lost in thought. He could not help but wonder what the dragon meant.

He leaned back in his chair and muttered to himself.

Two more days and I can send my people over to take over Ironhold, but their defenses really are pretty strong. How do I even get through this thing? I do have the option of not doing anything, but they are too annoying. They have already fucked things up for me. They attacked me twice... well, thrice if I count Gabriel."

He tapped his fingers on the armrest.

"These guys are basically my sworn enemies at this point. Even if I let them go now, they are going to stab me whenever they find a chance. There is no way I can just leave them be... there should be something that I should be able to do."

He stopped tapping.

"Things will be easy if those guys do not get captured and they do their job well. But I guess I can only wait."

He smiled.

"Hmm... they should be close to succeeding in their mission around now. Maybe another day or two? We will just have to wait and see how it goes."

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Test. Tell me if you see asterisks above and below this pls.

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