TL/Editor: raei
Status: 5/week mon-fri
Illustrations: none
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Time passed.
As emperor, Lupus seemed better than Sulla.
He opposed wealthy nobles and pushed policies to help poor commoners.
He kept his promise to become emperor for reforms.
But reforms ate away at Lupus's political life.
[Actions that create enemies.]Ian nodded.
The privileged class was always conservative.
Why bother changing the world when the present was pleasant and happy?
Those who wanted change were always those struggling in life.
And if reforms happened, their wealth might decrease.
Nobles saw Lupus's reforms as thorns in their eyes.
They denounced Lupus as a terrible dictator who went against imperial spirit.
So Lupus decided to raise a force to replace the existing nobles.
[Maronius.]
[Yes, Your Majesty.]
[I'll entrust you with an important task.]
Lupus trusted Maronius.
He had always been Maronius's active supporter.
Maronius followed Lupus like a father, trusting and depending on him.
Not realizing he'd become Lupus's puppet.
[I'll send people, teach them magic.]
[...Magic, you say?]
Maronius's magic improved yearly.
But it was still just beginning.
Maronius was called 'archwizard' not for wielding power to split mountains and shatter seas alone, but for creating magic.
Magic back then couldn't produce such power anyway.
You could try, but couldn't guarantee results.
Maronius found Lupus's decision strange.
[Forgive my presumption... but magic isn't something to teach widely.]
[Because of Heaven's Faith?]
[Yes, Your Majesty.]
Magic's roots were barbarian shamans' wicked techniques.
Any learned person could find connections between 'Maronius language' and barbarian sorcery.
Naturally, Heaven's Faith disliked belief in other religions.
What if magic spread and weakened faith in Heaven's Faith?
Maronius knew magic's limits himself.
Though it could produce amazing results depending on use... it was immature and imperfect.
Not worth opposing Heaven's Faith to learn.
[I'll handle that.]
But Lupus thought differently.
Magic clearly had immense potential.
Though immature as Maronius thought...
Still enough to cause social waves.
[But Your Majesty...]
[I won't hear objections. Just trust and follow me like always.]
[...I'll follow your orders.]
What Lupus wanted was 100 wizards blindly loyal to him.
He had zero intention of politically resolving noble opposition.
Lupus was originally a soldier.
Training 100 wizards to use as mercenaries, he wouldn't fear noble armies attacking.
Using wizards to crush noble armies-
Then placing wizards in vacant positions to rule the empire.
That was Lupus's plan.
Wizards would become the new noble class, useful in many ways.
Nobles who could shoot fireballs from their hands.
Weren't they qualified to rule commoners?
[I'm counting on you alone, Maronius.]
Honestly... Maronius disliked Lupus's plan.
Magic wasn't 'that kind of thing' Lupus thought.
It was just temporarily borrowing power while communicating with mysteries.
But he dared not object to the emperor's decision.
Maronius was already largely mentally bound to Lupus.
He'd followed Lupus abandoning parents, family, even his lover.
He couldn't deny Lupus now.
As Lupus intended, Maronius began teaching imperfect Maronius language to disciples.
Not knowing it would ruin everything-
#
[Lupus gathered 300 orphans from across the empire.]
[300?]
[Children recruited purely for potential, regardless of age, gender, or class.]
There were 100 wizard positions available.
But 300 candidates.
This was Lupus's intention.
[The children trained in a secret facility. Weekly tests, failures beheaded that evening.]
[...]
Ian thought he'd misheard.
What? Beheaded?
But it was true.
[Monday mornings, severed heads hung at the dining hall entrance.]
Crazy.
Ian was dumbfounded, and Kira frowned like holding back nausea.
[They selected only those absolutely loyal to the emperor. Even talented ones with rebellious spirits lost their heads.]
[...The emperor was a complete crazy fuck... Ah. Sorry.]
Maronius's soul slowly shook his head.
[You're right. Lupus was another mad emperor. He thought himself the empire's true savior, believing all his actions right and just.]
Lupus's secret training facility was the empire's dark secret.
With no records remaining, practically no one knew it existed.
[How much did Maronius know about the facility?]
[Nothing. I just thought they were children who received hard training. I was grateful they listened to me well.]
Maronius taught 150 children.
Competition continued until 100 were selected.
Finally, 100 new wizards were born.
Magic-warriors with fanatical loyalty to the emperor.
...That's when Maronius's magic research slowed.
[I heard news my disciples... committed murder with magic.]
Obvious to Ian listening.
Of course Lupus used wizards to kill, having trained them as warriors.
But to Maronius it was incredibly shocking news.
His idea of magic wasn't just a murder tool.
[I... wanted to create a language transcending language.]
To Maronius, magic was language.
Connecting person to person, person to world-
Something to end misunderstandings.
The ultimate language enabling free communication across age, gender, culture, nation, even race and existence.
That was magic.
[I wanted... no one else to suffer from misunderstandings and mistakes like me...]
Though Maronius enjoyed highest honors as imperial wizard, he wasn't happy or satisfied.
From the moment Liria died.
His life was essentially over.
Yet he stayed with Lupus out of desire to perfect magic and lingering affection for the emperor.
But the Maronius language he devoted his life to creating.
Became corrupted into a murder tool in Lupus's hands.
That's when Maronius began doubting Lupus.
And Lupus was quick-witted.
When Maronius showed signs of escaping his grasp...
He dispatched his wizards to eliminate Maronius.
That's why history books simply record his death as "died of heart attack."
[Your disciples' magic must have been impressive?]
Ian tilted his head slightly.
Maronius was magic's founder. Yet killed by disciples' magic. Was this surpassing the master?
[The magic that killed me was original magic my disciples developed.]
[Original magic?]
[Pure murder spells.]
Maronius explained.
[They mixed death and transformation powers to create spells that were death itself. They killed countless humans to perfect the spells.]
Ian paused.
[The magic your disciples developed. Today it's called 'black magic'.]
[Ah. I see. Yes. It didn't vanish.]
[How could it?]
Wanting to kill with magic might be human nature.
Maronius being killed by black magic wasn't surprising.
That's how the future archwizard died.
...Not very archwizard-like end.
That was Ian's impression.
Just, a human death.
#
Did Lupus's plan - crushing nobles with 100 magic warriors! - succeed?
History already answered.
The answer was 'no'.
Lupus's magic warriors... were fucking useless.
Almost all wizards lost their ability to use magic within 3 years.
'Makes sense.'
Magic was the process of communicating with mysteries.
Imagine someone calls you repeatedly, whining to kill someone every time.
Most mysteries weren't interested in killing people.
Why care if humans die? Humans were just part of the world, birth and death natural phenomena.
Every meeting they only talk about their interests, even asking you to join in?
Of course you'd cut ties.
Mysteries quickly lost interest in wizards who only wanted murder.
They got interested because humans appeared who could share will.
If meeting proved boring, no reason to keep meeting.
However, a tiny few wizards maintained their mysteries.
Death, transformation, domination...
Wizards applauded by mysteries that enjoyed harming others.
And such wizards were mostly psychopaths.
How could people who didn't blink at killing and torturing be normal?
They naturally fled from Lupus's sight.
Being socialized psychopaths, they never had loyalty anyway.
No wonder psychopaths have advantages in pressure interviews.
Those escaped wizards... became roots of continental black magic.
Lupus, having ruined his ambitious plan, totally failed and faced a coup.
The emperor who ousted Lupus faced another soldier's coup... then someone else staged a coup...
The Golden Empire just went to shit.
After that, as everyone knows, collapse.
'Wait.'
Ian thought.
'Without that bastard Lupus, seems the Golden Rule Society wouldn't have existed.'
Looking at it that way.
The one who unleashed black wizards on the continent was actually the Golden Empire's emperor?
Even giving them thorough murder training!
Ian clicked his tongue.
Really was the root of all evil.
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