The guards turned to face the Lord Regent, though a few hesitated. Magnus erupted in anger. "This is preposterous!" he shouted, turning to Aldric with a frantic edge in his voice. "Why are you letting your son make decisions on your behalf? See how easily he's swayed by strangers. Order the guards to stand down and arrest this man!" He pointed viciously at Haru.

The king appeared agitated, a frown deepening on his face. "Mr. Rex, I have no doubt that your cure is genuine, but your accusations are another matter. With everything we've endured, I trust Magnus with my life. I can't allow this to go on." He was about to call off the guards when Cael stepped forward.

"Father," Cael called out, locking eyes with him. "You and mother always taught me that the most important thing for a ruler is to care for the people who place their trust in you and to follow what you believe is right with absolute conviction. I've long suspected that the Lord Regent has acted against Cranch's interests, but I stayed silent because of your relationship. However, this time, I feel it deeply." He placed a hand over his heart. "Father, please trust me on this. I believe in the words of our savior, and to protect our kingdom, the Lord Regent must no longer be involved in its affairs."

Aldric looked surprised. This was the first time Cael had spoken so forcefully against him, and for a moment, he saw the true potential of his son as Cranch's rightful successor. To allow the young to grow, he needed to step aside. Stroking his chin, he finally sighed. "Old friend, please do me this favor and just play along. We'll conduct a proper investigation, and then we can put this all behind us with apologies and dinner."

Magnus' face contorted. "You cannot be serious, Aldric. I have served this kingdom faithfully for decades. To be treated like this based on the accusations of an outsider is an insult!"

Aldric's expression softened slightly, but his resolve remained firm. "Magnus, I believe our years of friendship will survive this. Let's trust the next generation. We must let Cael grow from this experience. Our previous plans to save Cranch have all fallen through, and it's time for something new. I believe Lysandra would trust Cael as well."

The guard captain approached Magnus with cuffs in hand. "Lord Regent, if you'll please."

"Back away!" Magnus shouted, tapping his cane on the floor. A surge of magic pushed the guards back several steps.

"Lord Regent, what is the meaning of this?!" Cael demanded.

"You—absolute brat!" Magnus bellowed, his voice echoing through the hall and silencing everyone. "How many years have I served this kingdom, acting as not only an advisor but a friend to the king and queen? And now you wish to humiliate me and detain me based on the words of a stranger? How far has this kingdom fallen? I'm thankful the queen did not live long enough to see the disgrace her own flesh and blood has brought upon it."

"Magnus, you're going too far—" The king tried to interject, but Magnus cut him off.

"Regardless of the prince's orders, I am still the royal advisor and deserve due process. Escort me to my quarters if you must, but treating me like a common criminal is unacceptable." He turned to Aldric. "If you ever valued me as a friend, you'll grant me this request at least."

The king nodded to the guards, who stepped back. Aldric sighed deeply, the weight of the situation evident in his expression.

As the guards began to lead Magnus away, Haru stepped in front of him, holding a drink. With a smirk, Haru raised his glass. "Lord Regent, though we may be new acquaintances, how about a toast? To the prosperity of Cranch!"

"A toast? From a charlatan? Spare me the theatrics," Magnus snapped, sidestepping Haru with a sharp click of his cane against the stone floor. "You've deceived everyone in this kingdom. I look forward to the day it falls into ruin under your influence."

"Oh, Lord Regent, you seem to have forgotten something."

Magnus paused, a flicker of unease crossing his face. "What are you talking abou—"

A glass of water flew through the air, splashing Magnus directly in the face. He staggered back, sputtering as droplets trickled down, instinctively raising a hand to wipe the water from his eyes.

"YOU BASTARD!" Magnus bellowed, his cane glowing with a faint magical energy. But before he could unleash his fury, Haru's voice cut through the tension.

"Interesting. I wonder what those purplish streaks are, slowly dissolving down your face. Almost like..." He let the implication linger.

Magnus's expression shifted from rage to horror as the makeup streaks became visible. A stunned silence fell over the room. Aldric's eyes widened with disbelief. "Magnus... what is going on?"

Magnus struggled to find an explanation. The plague had affected nearly everyone in the kingdom, manifesting as purple rashes and sores on those who drank the kingdom's water. Yet here was Magnus, visibly unaffected.

Cael's eyes widened, connecting the dots. "You... You faked being sick! You've been sabotaging us this entire time!"

Magnus's composure crumbled. With a snarl, he unleashed a wave of raw magical energy, sending the guards flying like ragdolls. He lunged towards Elric, intending to grab the young prince and use him as a hostage.

"Have you gone mad?! Magnus, stop!" Aldric shouted in disbelief. He stepped between Magnus and Elric, brandishing his sword and pressing it against the magic-infused cane. His hands trembled. "Tell me it isn't true. Tell me you're not..."

The magic around them undulated, causing a magical backlash which pushed the two apart.

"Lord Regent, you are under arrest, cease your magic immediately," The captain ordered. He charged forward, his men close behind. However, after taking only a couple of steps, he heard the screams of his men. To everyone's surprise, some guards turned against their comrades, attacking them to protect the Lord Regent.

Cael, realizing the extent of the betrayal, felt a surge of anger. "You all—" he began, rage boiling over as he understood that many guards were loyal to Magnus, making them traitors to the kingdom. "Capture them all!" he commanded. The guards clashed, and the captain swiftly knocked out two of the traitorous ones.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Magnus turned his furious gaze to Haru. "Everything that's happened is because of you! If nothing else, I will see you dead!" He raised his cane and slammed it down, channeling mana into the stone floor. Purple tendrils erupted from the ground, arcing upwards and snaking toward Haru. Aldric rushed in, deflecting several of the tendrils, but his skills had dulled, and a few slipped past him.

"Oh no!"

The tendrils aimed for Haru's head, yet he remained calm, a smile lifting. He tossed his pouch of Kladi towards the tendrils, and as it collided with one of the tendrils, the pouch tore open, scattering hundreds of coins. Haru quickly positioned a single coin against his thumb, holding a mana stone in his other hand. Though he had sold most everything he had in order to come here, he had always left a couple of mana stones in his pockets in case of emergencies. Channeling mana from the stone, he flicked the coin.

The coin shot out with incredible speed, and as it collided with another in the air, something extraordinary occurred. The rest of the coins vibrated in unison, creating a resonating frequency. The purple tendrils dissipated into nothingness.

"What?!" Magnus exclaimed in shock.

However, it wasn't over. The energy resonating through the coins began to coalesce back into the single coin initially struck by Haru's flick. In an instant, it shot forward with a speed faster than the eye could see. Magnus barely had time to react. Relying solely on his honed magical sensitivity, he managed to erect a quick barrier around himself at the last moment. The coin, despite its strength, began to waver against the barrier.

> Minus Strength

Magnus's face contorted in shock as he felt a sudden drain of his strength. The barrier weakened instantly, cracks spiderwebbing across its surface. It could no longer hold off the coin, which broke through but was deflected from its original trajectory. The coin pierced his shoulder, causing him to cry out in pain as he gripped the wound. Blood dripped down his arm and splattered onto the floor.

The guards momentarily halted their fighting, stunned by the sight of what they believed to be an ordinary man defeating a mage. Magnus's expression twisted with confusion. His mind raced. What just happened? How did he do that? How did he affect my magic like that? He wasn't just shocked by the sudden drain of his mana but also by the chain reaction triggered when Haru flicked that coin, dispersing his magic and breaking through his barrier.

The thing was, as an advanced mage, Magnus was sensitive to the fluctuations of magic. He had sense that Haru was not someone with a completed magic circuit or he would've radiated a degree of mana. Of course, there are mages out there who are able to refine and minimize the leakage of their mana but it was near impossible to hide yourself as a mage unless your control was perfect and continuous or if you had an artifact to help you hide it.

Even from a brief observation, Magnus instantly crossed out either of those being the case and chopped Haru up as some ordinary person. However, from everything he witnessed, he couldn't even fathom such a thing anymore.

In this world, all objects emit a unique type of energy charge. This fundamental concept is taught to all students of magic and forms the basis of magical theory. The energy charge emitted by an object can influence and amplify a mage's magic, which is why many mages use mediums in the form of canes, staffs, or wands to channel their mana. These mediums are often made from specific materials that are particularly effective at amplifying magic.

Different materials vary in their ability to enhance magical energy. Some materials are better at amplifying magic than others, making them highly sought after for crafting magical tools. Haru's actions, however, demonstrated a mastery of this principle that astonished even Magnus. The coins used in the creation of Kladi, for the most part, were made from mundane metals with little inherent magical value. However, these metals often contain traces of rarer and more potent materials, such as Orichalcum.

Orichalcum has a unique property of resonating strongly with mana. In the split second he absorbed the mana from the mana stone, Haru was able to pinpoint a single grain of Orichalcum within one of the coins he picked up. This required not only precise control of mana but also exceptional mental fortitude, the kind that can only be developed through years of mastery. Many mages spend their entire lives honing their skills without ever reaching this level of expertise. Haru, however, had a unique advantage: he was a summoned being, which gave him a different kind of perception sensitivity which he had also honed during his years in Kladin.

It also had to be said that he hadn't simply transferred the mana from the mana stone into the coin for all of that to happen. Over the many years, the magic capable inhabitants of Kladin understood the concept of manipulating mana through frequency. Frequency was what allowed mana to take form in this world.

For example, even fire has a specific energy charge. With mana sensitivity training, mages can learn to tune their mana's frequency at the point of their circuit exit to produce a similar flame. For the average mage, mastering this skill requires extensive practice to achieve satisfactory results. However, there are techniques to make the process easier, such as mental imaging. By understanding the frequency of what they wish to create and attaching it to a mental image, mages can seemingly automate the process.

Despite these techniques, a mage could spend a lifetime trying to understand and imagine every element in the world and still not come close to categorizing everything it has to offer. Thus, they only focused on learning magic relevant to them. Mental imaging demands immense mental fortitude, and for many, it becomes overwhelming. However, even this doesn't fully explain what Haru had just accomplished.

Haru had matched the frequency emitted by the element Orichalcum and essentially supercharged it. By doing so, he created a phenomenon known as Frequency Resonance, which began to influence its surroundings. The Orichalcum elements within the other coins synchronized to the same frequency. This resonance spread to the other coins, amplifying the magical energy in a cascading effect. Although Haru initially infused only a small amount of mana, the resonance amplified it, overwhelming Magnus's magic.

This concept, known as Resonance Amplification, is taught in high-level magical academies and is challenging to execute, even for advanced mages. What made Haru's execution so remarkable was his ability to precisely calibrate the magic to the specific frequency required for resonance to happen.

Finally, what tied everything together, was the set of magical instructions he gave which instructed the mana to coalesce and finally allow the coin he had initially struck, to fire back with the amplified mana. This worked by a similar principle which makes mana cannons so destructive in this world.

Magical Instructions were simply just instructions used to dictate the movement of mana after form took place. A beginner mage is capable of firing a flame blast with a simple mental image and adjusting the frequency of mana to that of fire. By simply pointing the exit point of one's magic circuit, you can also direct where the blast ends up. The problem with that is that if you knew a mage could only fire straight ahead, then it becomes easy to dodge. Even monsters wouldn't stand still.

Magnus' earlier magic utilized a type of Magical Instruction that made its movements somewhat random and unpredictable, even for someone as skilled as Aldric. Magical Instructions operate on a principle similar to mathematics in Haru's old world. To effectively use them, one must understand mana not merely as a force of nature but as a complex rules influenced by environmental factors and the greater world. This complexity is one reason why so few people in this world become mages, and why achieving a rank as high as Magnus is exceptionally rare.

Furthermore, even among the hundred summoned, only a few took the time to open their magic circuits, as the skills they brought with them often bypassed the need for complex magical theory, allowing them to use their abilities without much thought. Haru, however, was an exception. He diligently learned and practiced the magic of Kladin to an intermediate level. Unlike his teammates, who had more combat-focused skills, Haru's skills were primarily supportive. He wasn't a fighter, though he could hold his own. In a real battle, Haru understood that mastering magic was crucial for overcoming the challenges he would face.

Magnus, stared darts at Haru. He knew his questions would never be answered and with himself being injured now, he put his focus back on Aldric.