Free Web NovelChapter 436: Chapter 433: Who to Side With?
Before Bart’s wedding, the Town Mage of Wertzburg had died an unnatural death, which allowed Bart to pull some strings and take the post. Rorschach was supposed to be next, but unfortunately for the assassin, they ran into him instead.
Afterward, the Town Mage’s superior promised to launch an investigation, but nothing came of it. Inspector Mariano, who had nearly died, was also never heard from again. It was very likely that the investigation was suppressed by the military—by the Military Mages.
As for the reason for the assassination... Rorschach guessed they were likely proponents of Great Empireism, unable to tolerate a Town Mage with ties to the States growing too close to the King.
"Thank you for the warning." Rorschach admitted the information was important. ’The attention of those mad dogs probably isn’t on Bayern at the moment, but that doesn’t mean they won’t come biting again, especially if the Bayern Kingdom were to proactively intervene in the situation in the future.’
As for the file... the agency being gone had indeed saved him a lot of trouble, but the current Rorschach no longer cared. With his present strength, even if the agency still existed, no one could stop him from leaving it.
Even if the secret file the Prime Minister brought was made public, the Empire would have nothing to hold against Rorschach. Moreover, he had no desire to rise to power like Bart, nor did he have any so-called political enemies who would use this matter to hassle him. As the saying goes, strength comes from a lack of desire.
Perhaps the Prime Minister knew this as well. He handed the file to the man himself. "I wonder if Rorschach Mage is satisfied with this ’gift’? You should thank Mr. Sibins. Outside of this file, your identity was always concealed by a codename. So, even if the Military Mages take over the shattered agency, they won’t be able to find you for the time being."
"I’m... a little curious about my codename."
"Ibis. The ibis in which we placed great hope." Sibins had never trusted Casters and had controlled the number of Mages in the agency. But the gap between ordinary people and Casters couldn’t be bridged by Scrolls and Alchemy Tools alone. Regardless of whether Sibins realized this later on, Otto knew that the agency’s failure was inevitable.
’At least my old friend’s judgment wasn’t wrong...’ The Prime Minister wasn’t sure what Rorschach’s current strength was, as he seemed focused on running his enterprise. But in terms of his accomplishments, he was at least on par with the Thissen family, who were honored guests at the Imperial Palace.
The private dinner was still ongoing. The Prime Minister actually knew that Rorschach had participated in the development of new communication technology at the Tower of Stars. Of course, he had also noticed the telegraph lines in Bayern.
Rorschach promised to license the technology to the Empire’s companies, but the Prime Minister hoped to obtain the wireless radio technology.
’The Tower of Stars succeeded in developing it? Did Master Poincare get involved?’ This was one area where Rorschach’s information was outdated. He didn’t even know that a prototype machine had already been captured on the battlefield by his former roommate. Therefore, he could only confess that when he was involved in the research, wireless radio had not yet been achieved.
But he had a new idea. "The Empire Army’s advantage lies in its number of Low Tier Mages, which is greater than the National Guard’s. While studying and replicating Valois’s technology is certainly feasible, why not leverage your own strengths?"
"You mean..."
"Improve upon the [Communication Skill]." Rorschach thought it was feasible. The [Communication Skill] was already a somewhat discreet spell. Rorschach hadn’t studied its principles in detail, but from the process of learning it, he could confirm that it relied on the Vibration of ambient Magic Power to propagate.
But clearly, the vibrations of ambient Magic Power couldn’t travel very far; the range was about the same as normal speech. So, could they introduce Electric Magic and turn Casters into human-shaped base stations?
"[Communication Skill] and [Electric Claw] are both Low Ring Magic. What if we try to combine them? We could discard the principles and mechanisms of radio transmission and reception, and instead replace the carrier for the magical communication with electromagnetic waves. This would differentiate it from Valois’s wireless radio machines, making it harder to intercept, while also achieving a much greater transmission distance... I apologize, these are just my half-baked ideas."
"I don’t understand this field, but I assure you, this idea will be taken seriously." As the Prime Minister spoke, his secretary was furiously taking notes at the side.
As the secretary took notes and Rorschach spoke eloquently, the Prime Minister was deep in thought. The current trend was the proliferation of Magic, and the Empire would have to accelerate the pace at which it discovered and trained the Talented. ’But is strengthening the ranks of Casters necessarily a good thing? It’s just like the Empire Army, which is gradually spinning out of control...’
’The Mage Association is getting involved with the army, and soon it won’t be limited to just the army. The Chief Military Mage’s subordinates are one example. The person I’m speaking with now, and Bart, are other examples.’
’And yet, to defeat the National Guard, which also has Mages, we have no choice but to do this. There’s a proverb from the Far East: drinking poison to quench a thirst. From my perspective, the two countries are currently in a competition to see who can drink the most poison, each hoping the other will die of thirst or from the poison first.’
During their talk, Mr. Otto also received a gift in return from Rorschach. The young man revealed that he would be developing a new lightweight gas. Its density would be only slightly greater than Lightweight Flammable Element, but it would be stable, so filling an Airship with it wouldn’t turn it into a flying powder keg.
What comforted the Prime Minister somewhat was that when he mentioned the Empire’s electoral redistricting reform, Rorschach also showed great interest. Since the young man was willing to cooperate with the Empire, the Prime Minister no longer worried about him leaning toward Valois. And since he was willing to support the reform, it meant he wasn’t someone who blindly obeyed the Bayern Royal Family either.
That was enough. Otto wasn’t foolish enough to expect a Middle Level Mage to pledge allegiance to an Emperor he had never met.
The Prime Minister’s trip was not over. He still had to pay another visit to the Royal Palace and then, according to his schedule, make a trip through the Southern Countries.
...
In the Meeting Room, all the familiar faces were present. Seated among them were Bart and the "new face," Valon. The poor bastard’s face was still pale. Although he had come to Bayern a long time ago, he had never been assigned any work. Instead, he had been left to recuperate in peace. Only recently had he begun to take over some of Andre’s duties—if Andre continued like this, with little time to practice Magic, he would probably remain an Apprentice for the rest of his life.
Master Humboldt had visited and given him a "check-up," concluding that his "lungs" were functioning well.
As for Valon himself, he had already "died" several times at a young age; he had been through hell and back. Now, making his debut in the Meeting Room before the various "big shots" of the Special Zone, his demeanor was as placid as a corpse’s.
’In his eyes, the King of Bayern is about to be in for a world of hurt. The young Mage sitting at the head of the round table, my own savior, was once an honored guest of Charles XVI. I’m the only one in the Meeting Room who knows that from the gold mine incident to the Mining Company’s bankruptcy, the outbreak of the crisis, all the way to the King getting whacked, everything is inextricably linked to Rorschach.’
’Seeing this foolish King of Bayern dare to let the "King Slayer" run wild and do his own thing... Heh...’
CLICK. The door lock closed under Rorschach’s [Mage’s Hand]. At the same time, he cast a spell to seal the space of the Meeting Room (Rorschach used the Spell Cloud to cast a spell uploaded by Caroline). This change instantly made the attendees tense and serious, all except for the unfazed Valon.
"There are some things that need to be discussed behind closed doors. Everyone has been working hard. The Special Zone’s two locations and five factories have now reached a scale large enough that even the Empire’s Prime Minister has come sniffing around."
Joyful chuckles echoed in the Meeting Room, except from Valon.
"Unfortunately, our time for peaceful development is coming to an end. We’ve reached a critical juncture. The only major power we’ve managed to attract is the Lord Chancellor. So which side should we lean toward?
"The Bayern Royal Family..." Rorschach looked at Bart and Mr. Haase.
"Valois..." His gaze fell upon Teacher Caroline, as well as Andre and the expressionless Valon.
"The Empire..." He paused. "Who do we join forces with and split the spoils? Or do we choose none of them?"
