Owen was surprised and asked:" Why is he so insistent on keeping that mine? Even defying my orders for it; either there is something very precious there, or he is an idiot."

Jeffry said:" Your majesty, there is a third possibility! Every other Nobel supports count sykes, so this might be a coordinated effort by all nobles to dismantle the court system we set up."

The court system was just recently created, and it was forcefully imposed on the nobles.

They always disliked it because it limited their power.

They were always complaining about it.

There were instances when it took Owen's order to make them comply.

But Owen was very keen on preserving the court system.

He wanted to strengthen the rule of law because it limits nobels power to abuse ordinary people; without it, they can do whatever they want, and even if they violate the laws of the kingdom, people have nowhere to complain, essentially making all of the laws only in the paper without any effect.

Owen cared about the kingdom's people.

Most of his attention was on his mage path, but that didn't mean he didn't care about the kingdom.

He asked, "What is your recommendation, Jeffry?"

"I think we need to answer this very carefully. Maybe we should send an envoy and negotiate with them on some compromise and maybe exempt them from complying with some laws," Jeffry said.

Owen laughed and ordered, "This is my order: gather five legendary knights, fifty great knights, five hundred knights, and fifty thousand soldiers as soon as possible! We will arrest anyone who ignored the court orders and, more importantly, my orders!"

After that, he cast a sharp look at Jeffry and left.

He had already fired this man in his mind, and he would officially fire him after the war.

The nobles defied his order, and Jeffry wanted to negotiate!

They can delay, misinterpret, half-heartily comply, etc., but flat-out defying his orders is way past the red line!

Owen decided to send Tristan Farrell, his best warrior, as commander.

He doesn't expect any of the other nobles to send any reinforcement when they see the size of his army, but he would be happy to see that happen, as he can know who troublemakers are and can remove them later.

As for orders of the Blue Light Academy, this war is internal.

Owen only needs to explain it to his ancestor, and he is confident that his ancestor would agree.

With his ancestor approving this, there is nothing to worry about.

With this, a war campaign started!

…

The army marched with more than 50,000 soldiers!

Each legendary knight was a general who was commander of 10,000 soldiers.

As for great knights, they were directly under the legendary knights. They may be assigned to be commanders or may form special units.

Tristan Farrell liked to organize the army this way.

In addition, they brought a lot of siege equipment, including Battering rams, Catapults, Siege towers, and all kinds of equipment.

Robels kingdom kept an arsenal of various war weapons, even though they rarely needed it.

This way, they can quickly send an army instead of wasting time making them when the war started.

This shows the amazing mobilizing ability of the Robel kingdom.

After 10 days of marching, they finally reached the Burch castle.

This castle was located in the southernmost part of the rebel's kingdom.

The only road to Sykes City is through this castle.

Tristan has no other way but to conquer this castle to reach Count Sykes.

...

In the camp

Tristan and five other legendary knights were sitting around a round table.

Oscar, a legendary knight with a big mustache and deep blue eyes, was talking.

"As I said, our troops are much more trained and have all the necessary siege ckeequipments. We must attack and destroy them!"

Glenn, another legendary knight with long hair, said, "Why should we try to attack when we can surround them and wait for their supplies to end? Then, they attack us, and we take much fewer losses."

Oscar said," his majesty is waiting for the news of victory; do you want to make him wait? So what if some people die? It's war!"

Glenn remained silent.

Allan, another of the legendary knights, nodded his head and said, "Oscar is right. We can't stall here! Sykes City has a population of 300000 people. The more we wait here, the more time we give him to train troops. We should take this castle as soon as possible!"

Ivan, also a legendary knight, said, "I agree with Glenn. Count Sykes doesn't have enough weapons to form an army. Also, we have blocked all other trading routes to Sykes City. I think the later we reach there, the weaker they will be. If we rush there, our losses would be thousands, but if we wait, they may surrender themselves!"

The last legendary knight, Frank, said, "I also agree with Ivan. They don't have the weapons and armor to make an army. We should surround them and wait. I'm sure his majesty would be pleased if we take the castle without any casualties!"

Oscar snorted angrily.

All eyes turned to Tristan.

Tristan was deep in thought.

After a while, he said, "We'll wait."

...

Robels kingdom's army surrounded the castle and blocked it from receiving anything.

Even a stream that was flowing to the castle was blocked.

With a steady stream of supplies from Mata City, the army had no problems regarding food and other necessities.

On the other hand, people in Burch Castle were killing horses to feed themselves.

With no reinforcement in sight, the commander of Burch Castle placed white flags up and opened the gates!

They surrendered!

Tristan was pleased to see this!

He ordered them arrested and sent to Mata City.

Because they were surrounded, their punishment would be light!

Tristan took the castle and put Glenn in charge of it.

After that, he and other legendary knights, along with 45 great knights, hundreds of knights, and tens of thousands of soldiers, started marching toward Sykes City!

...

Count Sean Sykes punched the man in the face!

"How dare they? Surrendering to Tristan? That lowly, dirty peasant? damn it!"

A great knight named Wade, who was Sean's assistant, said, "Malord, the situation is dire! We should use that!"

Sean said, "Even with that, we will still lose! Is there any news from the mage?"

Wade said," Malord, that mage has taken all the magic crystals and left. There is no chance he would come back."

Count Cykes screamed and punched the wall!

A few months ago, a mage came and proposed a deal.

Count Sykes would help the mage mine a rank 3 magic crystal mine, and in return, the mage would give him a rank 3 'mage talent' pill!

Count Sykes is old!

Becoming a mage is the only chance for him to increase his lifespan.

But he doesn't have any mage talent.

Pills like 'Mage Talent' are so precious that even if he sells everything, he still can't buy half of a 'Mage Talent' pill!

Even if he has the money, finding one who has it and is willing to sell it is challenging.

That mage's proposal was his only chance, so he agreed.

The only problem was that the mine was in the private land of a free person.

If it was before, he would just take it, but recently, courts have been established.

Laws around land ownership have been strengthened.

It's no longer possible to just take people's land away.

That man wouldn't sell his land, no matter what he offered.

Count Sykes was desperate, so he took that man's land anyway.

He wanted to kill the man to silence him, but the man was smart; he ran away and sued him in court.

Sean ignored the court's order.

Then King Robels sent him a royal decree to give the land back.

But at that point, it was too late!

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

That mysterious mage have already given him the rank 3 mage talent pill, and he used it.

If he were to go back on his word and say 'You can't mine here', that mage would kill him right there!

So he disobeyed the king's order.

What he didn't expect was the extremely aggressive action by the king!

Unbelievably, they sent an army.

Sean had bribed Jeffry with a lot of gold.

He hoped Jeffry would convince the king to back down.

In the last month, Count Sykes sent many letters of apology, but all were ignored!

Even worse, every country around rejected their Asylam request.

Count Sykes's territory borders the Salas Empire, the Kobi Kingdom, and the Blue Light Academy.

The Kobi Kingdom has a great relationship with the Robels kingdom.

They would never allow him to take refuge there.

Salas empire is neutral but definitely wouldn't allow him to take Asylum.

As for the Blue Light Academy, don't even think about it!

At best, they would be arrested and sent back if they ran to the neighboring countries.

Unless he grows wings and flies, Sean can't run away!

He sighed and said, "Do it!"

That thing was their only chance.

If they defeat Robels's army, the road to the north will be accessible again. Then, they can get out of the Blue Light Academy's spread of influence and run to one of those independent cities.

Wade bowed and left the room.

...

The Robels army reached Sykes City after only 3 days.

But what they witnessed was different from what they expected.

People were everywhere!

Tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands!

Tristan was astonished and said, "Are they peasants? What is going on here? Send a group and arrest a few of them to interrogate them!"

After a while, a few of them were arrested.

Oscar began questioning them harshly.

"Who are you?"

No response was given.

Oscar punched the man.

"Why are you walking outside the city walls?"

The man didn't even react to the punch.

Oscar lost his patience and started torturing the man.

But the man was like a corpse, not reacting to anything.

Everyone who witnessed this was astonished!

Tristan had a bad feeling!

"This might be magic; no, this is definitely magic!" he thought.

Just as he thought of that, a red light shined from within the syles city, and then the man who looked dead jumped at Oscar!

He was like a beast, using his teeth and nails to try to scratch Oscar to death!

Unfortunately for him, Oscar, a legendary knight, punched and turned the man into meat sauce!

Oscar laughed, but then he looked at the hundred thousand people outside the city.

Every single one of them was rushing straight at them!

Tristen screamed, "Get ready, sound the trumpets! Take defensive position!"

Before long, the zombie army attacked!

Each one of them was weak, but that is in comparison to knights!

In comparison to ordinary people, they were much stronger.

Most of the army of the Robels kingdom was composed of ordinary people!

As time passed, the ground was filled with dead people!

The majority were 'zombies,' but many were also soldiers of the Robels kingdom!

What's worse, when soldiers died, after a while, they would come back to life to attack the Robels army!

Fortunately for the Robels kingdom, the 'zombies' were weaker than the knights.

Not a single knight was killed.

It was because of Tristan's orders.

He gathered all knights and great knights, altogether abandoning regular soldiers.

For this reason, the knights fought alongside each other, and even if one was exhausted, other knights were there to support them.

Combine that with 45 great knights and 5 legendary knights, they managed to avoid casualties.

After one day, every single one of the 'zombies' was killed.

But also, of 45000 soldiers, less than half made it out alive!

Tristan looked at the literal river of blood that was flowing and cried!

"That devil count sykes!" he was furious!

He ordered everyone to go and look for the count.

But after days of searching, they couldn't find anyone!

...

In Sykes City, only women and small children remained.

Whatever that magic was, it only worked on men.

The army collected and burned all the corpses, fearing some zombies might still be alive.

After leaving 10,000 soldiers to protect this city temporarily, Tristen gathered the remaining army and returned to the Mata city.

He was very depressed about how he would explain the incident and the massacre to his majesty!

...

The twenty-seventh day of the fourth month of year 989956

Owen was sitting in the meditation room.

He slowly took one more limit-breaking pill from the container and swallowed it.

Immediately, a chilly energy flow entered his meridians and reached his aperture.

Soon, it surrounded his mana pool and, after a while, slightly largened it.

But the effect was minimal and barely noticeable.

He opened his eyes, and after a while, he sighed.

This pill is now officially useless for him.

His resistance to it is so high that its effect is less than one percent of when he first started.

Fortunately, after a few months of using this pill, his mana pool is so large that it's very close to the true limit.

Then he took out two other pills.

These pills were treasures that his ancestors sent him!

One is a rank-one pill that significantly increases the chances of reaching the official mage!

It is named the 'rank one' pill and has a deep history.

Initially invented by the ancient seven-color academy around a million years ago, the pill's recipe is widely spread among all mage academies.

But its materials are so rare that it is more valuable than most rank two pills!

Its mechanism is mysterious, but the effect is known to all.

This pill will significantly decrease the chance of failure when breaking through rank 1 mage.

Having this pill when breaking through the official mage stage is hugely luxurious.

Only those with wealthy supporters can get it.

Everyday apprentice mages who don't have a strong supporter can only dream about it.

In general, Refining pills is a complex task.

Even rank 1 mages can hardly get rank 1 pills!

Let alone apprentice mages getting a pill that is as valuable as a rank 2!

989956 years ago, around the time high-ranking mages invaded heaven, the time was locked, and since then, resources for concocting pills have become much more challenging to cultivate.

Many of these valuable pills require plants thousands of years old to concoct.

Before, mages used time magic to accelerate time.

But after the time was locked, they couldn't do it anymore.

The 'rank one' pill looked like a square and was pink.

The other was a rank-one limit-breaking pill!

It was extremely useful for Owen, as he believed he would likely reach the true limit with this pill!

Owen took a deep breath, took out the rank one limit-breaking pill, put it in his mouth, and swallowed!

He felt massive amounts of freezing energy entering his meridians!

With difficulty, he consciously directed all of it to his aperture.

The freezing energy of the pill gathered around his root mana pool.

After a while, the root mana pool began to expand significantly, to the point that it didn't have more space to grow!

The mana poll is inside the aperture.

It usually is much smaller than the aperture.

But now, Owen's mana pool is the same size as his aperture.

Unlike the mana pool, the aperture's size is fixed and can never expand!

When the size of the mana pool is the same as that of the aperture, mages call it the true limit!

If the mana poll gets any bigger, Owen would explode and die!

"Finally, I reached my true limit!" he cheered.

"Now, everything is ready, and the next full moon, I will try to reach the official mage!" he was excited.

In the meantime, he plans to use a few 'root mana' pills to fill his mana pool again.

After all, it is now bigger, so he has to fill it again.

Even though with the true limit, his chance of failure is zero, to be on the safe side, he decided to wait for the full moon.

Better safe than sorry!

Official mage is a big deal in the world, and with his talent, it would not be his last promotion!

An official mage can live up to 500 years!

With his rank eight talent and the protection of his ancestor, he would likely reach higher levels than the official mage.

Owen believes that his talent is the main reason that his ancestor is helping him.

People with mage talent are rare; barely 1 in 100 would have mage talent, and most are rank one.

His rank-eight talent is so rare that no person in a thousand years in Robel's kingdom might be born with it!

Usually, mages wouldn't care about worldly affairs.

Official mages might care a little, and rank two mages might still have some care about the mortal world, but after rank 2, mages really don't care about anything but advancing in their mage path.

One example is that the dean of the blue light sect is a woman, but all kingdoms surrounding it discriminate against women openly.

The dean is a rank-five mage.

She can change everything with a few words!

Yet, she won't do it because she doesn't care about mortals.

One reason might be because of age.

Rank one mages have a lifespan of 500 years.

Rank 2 mages have a lifespan of 2500 years.

Rank 3 mages can live up to 12500 years.

Rank 4 can live 62500 years.

As for rank 5, they can live up to 312500 years!

After tens of thousands of years, who knows what their mindset is?

They witnessed the rise and fall of many kingdoms.

For them, mortals are like flies.

But even then, his ancestor, a rank-four mage, cared about him and sent him many gifts and resources!

That shows how rare his rank-eight mage talent is!

His ancestor might think that helping him is beneficial to his own mage path.

Still, whatever his ancestor's reasons are, Owen is very grateful.

He sighed deeply, got up, and went to rest.

...

Soon, it was time for the throne room again.

Owen went in.

There were five people inside.

By this time, he had fired Jeffry.

In his place, he appointed a man named Josef Santana.

He was from a commoner family and was very talented.

The 5th person was Tristan Farrell, who was not tall and muscular, contrary to what one might expect from a legendary knight.

When they saw him enter, everyone bowed.

Tristan Farrell spoke with his permission.

"Your Majesty, we defeated Count Sykes!" he said.

Owen replied slowly," Casualties?"

Tristan lowered his voice and reported, "27,208 soldiers died and more than 10,000 injured."

This large number made Owen shocked!

"How did this happen? Did any of the other nobles help him? Quickly talk!" Owen said angrily.

Tristan started talking," Your majesty, the count used unknown magic. We were caught off guard."

Tristan continued," he somehow turned all of the men in his territory into some kind of walking dead who attacked us without regard for their lives."

Owen thought, saying, "How many ordinary people died?"

Tristan hesitated to say, but when he saw the king's impatient look, he said," More than 100,000 people!"

Owen crushed the glass of wine in his hand in rage!

"One idiot Nobel caused the death of this many innocent people! Such a shame, it is such a shame!" Owen started cursing Count Sykes loudly.

He would never have sent an army if he hadn't been prohibited from using mages in mortal battles by the Blue Light Academy.

As for sending a smaller army, that would risk losing; in addition, the larger army was for intimidation and possible surrounding of Count Sykes.

As for assassination, this war was about making an example that everyone must comply with laws, so killing a noble illegally was out of the table.

Owen sighed and said with disgust," Look for the count everywhere and send arrest warrants to all surrounding countries! I want him alive."

Then he turned to Nell and said, "The count appears to have used magic, so use all of our magic resources to aid in finding him! Also, go and inform the Blue Light Academy immediately!"

If magic is involved, then the rules allow the use of mages.

Nell bowed and left.

"Is there anyone left alive?" Owen asked.

Tristen said with a low but clear voice, "Women and some young boys survived. I placed 10,000 of our soldiers who weren't injured to guard them. They are begin taken care of."

Owen said, "Give families of all the deceased adequate compensation; the compensation's monetary burden is split 50-50 between the royal faction and the nobles. In addition, prepare a report about the exact gender breakdown of people who survived."

"I don't want a barren territory in my kingdom. As such, incentivize young men to move there from other places. Also, the territory hereby is annexed by the crown and will be controlled and ruled directly by it. Josef, Go and implement all of my orders as soon as possible," he commanded with majesty.

Josef bowed and left.

Then, he asked others to report any other important news.

Nothing noteworthy had happened, so he ended the meeting and left.

…

After a few weeks, it was full moon again!

Owen was sitting in the meditation room and was concentrating.

He wanted to be in his best state before the breakthrough.

But after a while, he opened his eyes and frowned!

"Death of one hundred thousand of my citizens has affected my mood. I'm angry! It's not the best time to break through. Delaying it for another month is best!"

Now, he understood why kings would abandon the throne after becoming mages!

Concentration and mental peace are essential for mages, as casting spells, medication, and pretty much everything about mages is a mental activity and requires a peaceful and clear mind.

Now, his mind has waves, and he can't completely concentrate.

"Let's take a vacation for a month to clear my mind!" he thought.

It's hard for kings to take a vacation as they must always be careful about people who want to harm them, but that is for regular kings!

His source of power is his rank four mage ancestor, and nobody can dream of illegitimately taking over the crown.

He made preparations, appointed Josef as guardian of the crown, and then left for a peaceful lake in the royal territory.

…

weeks later

These days, he was completely relaxed and played chess, learned some musical instruments, watched dances, and listened to many beautiful music by the best musicians of the kingdom.

The full moon is in the sky.

His eyes are closed, and he is in deep meditation.

"Let's start!" Owen felt that his state was the best it could get, so he took out the 'rank one' pill his ancestor gave him and swallowed it directly!

Then he used the secret method and drew all root mana in his mana pool and used them to cast the particular spell to crystalize his root mana!

Casting a rank one spell by someone in rank 0 is very difficult, but he trained it many times, and his state of mind was excellent; plus the boost provided by the 'rank one' pill, the spell was cast flawlessly!

All of the root mana in his mana pool vanished, and after a while, a small, blurry, circular crystal appeared in his aperture!

"Success," he was overjoyed!

This was mana core, and only official mages have it!

It signified that he had succeeded; from now on, he is an official mage!

The official mage stage is the actual beginning of the mage path!

Apprentice mages can only use leaves mana, a degraded version of root mana that can only be used for simple spells.

But official mages can use root mana directly, so their spells are much stronger than apprentice mages!

Even if rank one mage cast the same rank 0 spells, it would be much stronger than when apprentice mages cast the same spell.

Owen released his aura, and most people surrounding his medication room trembled and fell!

Mortals can hardly tolerate even the aura of official mages!

Only great nights and legendary knights can stay conscious in the face of an official mage's aura!

When he felt that his subordinates fainted, he contained his aura and wanted to move to a quiet area to test some of his abilities freely.

But at this time, a cheerful woman's voice appeared in his mind!

"Hello, Owen; it's nice to finally talk to you!"