Chapter 80: Aide's Report.
This following event happens a month after the fog appears.
My expedition towards the territory of the Beaufort family during the invasion of the Great fog has made me doubtful of some of the things that I have learned in the past.
The magic Principles that I know of and am very familiar with have become obsolete inside of that strange place, allowing me to have my own conjectures that help me question everything.
-Personal report of wizard Aide to the king of Turox kingdom after his investigation inside of the forsaken land.
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"What strange words to put on his personal report." The tired voice of an old man sounded inside the hall after reading the report of Aide.
"Are you sure this is what he really submitted to me personally? and what is this all about?" He asks towards one of the royal messengers that are currently kneeling on the cold marbled floor.
"I'm sorry your highness but this is what we have received from him, he says that some information is too classified to be sent on our Magic antenna." The magic scholar said while trembling from the combination of the cold floor he felt from his skin and from the cold stare he received from the old king.
"What a complicated fellow I honestly didn't expect him to be this devoted to his job." The king said in a mellow tone.
"It's all because of your grace your highness." The old scholar said while bowing his head.
"I presume that this is not the only thing you wanted to report to me right? This sentence is too short to be even considered as a report." King Fazzadh said slowly while he withdraw his cold gaze from the poor scholar.
"You are truly wise my lord sir Aide also sent us a detailed report regarding the happenings in the Beaufort territory." The scholar said as he hands a copy of another transcript detailing the events that Aide has experienced and observed in that place.
"The Beaufort house?" Kung Fazzadh uttered in a confused manner.
"What happened to them? Although the Beauforts are in a dire situation due to their social status in the aristocratic world, it's still impossible for the rest of the aristocracy to cause any commotion in that place. Hubert alone is enough to cause most of them to fall back on their asses so they wouldn't dare to cross him over." King Fazzadh said in a puzzled manner.
Due to an injury, he suffered from casting a powerful spell several decades ago, he now needs to live in seclusion to recuperate himself in order for him to recover. And King Fazzadh has already handed the management of the Turox kingdom to Queen Latifa Denisse Neinstein Burnham or Queen Latifa for short.
The current Queen of the Turox kingdom is King Fazzadh's second wife, the previous war devastated the Turox kingdom down to its roots, and in order to restart the kingdom's economy and finances he needs to make ties with the Burnham family, not because they are a wealthy or a powerful clan but because of the Queen herself is a capable person and a great beauty too.
Due to her initiative and reforms to the economy of the Turox kingdom, it eventually managed to slowly get back on its feet, and king Fazzadh was able to focus solely on recovering from his injuries, but despite the long years of absence from the royal court king Fazzadh still maintain a low presence in the kingdoms important affairs.
That war can be said as one the biggest war that King Fazzadh himself experienced, and it also was one of the most treacherous and brutal wars in the history of the Turox kingdom. Even the first Queen of the Turox kingdom died due to an assassination and only 2 out of their 3 children were able to survive that chaos.
Currently, the Turox kingdom has 2 princes and 2 princesses next in line, and despite his injury, King Fazzadh was still able to procreate with Queen Latifa resulting in another 3 children. The children of Queen Latifa is supported by the growing power of the Burnham family which is now one of the most influential family in the kingdom.
The family of the first Queen steadily declined since her death, but they're still able to maintain their status due to the presence of her 2 children.
The first Queen name Diva is a member of the Greenfield family, and they are now at war with the Burnham family for the throne of the first crown prince since King Fazzadh hasn't proclaimed anyone yet to be the next king on the throne.
Even though king Fazzadh is still alive and well, his long absence from the court has resulted in some skirmish between the members of the royal family with Burnham's family taking the lead. And because of this, the aristocracy of the Turox kingdom is now divided into two factions.
The old noble family who supports the Greenfield family, while on the other side is the newly risen aristocrat's supporting the expanding power of the Burnham family and although both of them don't agree with each other they also have something in common.
And that is to stop the rise of the Beaufort house. Although it's been hundreds of years since this family has been demoted and thrown into the isolated place at the border of the enchanted forest, this old noble family has never failed to surprise them.
In regards to influence, the Beaufort family has fallen due to their banishment from the royal capital but their names remain engraved on everyone's mind.
Beaufort's family was a bane to their goals.
They create legends one after the other even with their scarce resources they still managed to produce 3 brilliant heirs and everything becomes apparent during the great war when the 2 eldest brothers of Hubert continuously lead their army to victory showing their great attainment in knighthood despite the sanctions of many aristocrat's.
The rise of the Beaufort house is not acceptable for both of them, as this family has once become the leader of all of the Noble House of the Turox kingdom and their story is still shining brightly to this day. The Beaufort house has strict rules that are against the principles of most of the nobles.
The nobles wants to expand their power and accumulate more wealth but the Beaufort house wanted this wealth to be distributed throughout the kingdom in a form of infrastructure or building more commercial space that nobles can't take advantage of.
The biggest factor why most of the Noble house doesn't like the Beaufort family is that, they put too much thought into magic research and knight's training, which takes away a huge amount of money, and a lot of people considered it a waste of time since they won't get anything from it.
That's why when the Beaufort family was banished from the circle of power most of the nobles started to enjoy their lives, and this is also the start where corruption have begun to spread throughout the kingdom.
The previous king is also not in favor of the Beaufort family since they hold too much power comparable to a king. The situation has become worst, especially when they discovered that the founder of their country have left an official document granting permission to the Beaufort family to rule the country if the line of the Ashford family perished or if the Beaufort family deemed them unfit for the throne.
This old document is now hidden since it was forged with powerful magic that makes the validity of the contract infinite and almost indestructible. This is also one of the many reasons why the Beaufort family is banished from the royal capital of Fordeaux city since the previous king fears the power of this family.
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King Einar Craw Ashford is the founder and the first ruler of the Turox kingdom. He was also the one that is responsible for making this magic contract with the founder of the Beaufort family that eventually became the main reason for his descendants to betray the Beaufort family.
"Well, are you going to speak or what? tell me what's going on." King Fazzadh said towards the scholar who suddenly become quiet.
"King Fazzadh, the Beaufort territory is now covered in a mysterious fog that is filled with parasites that infect anyone who tried to go in, and at the same time, sightings of mutated creatures were also reported on that place." The scholar said in fear.
"What?" King Fazzadh said in shock.
"When did this happen?" King Fazzadh said worriedly.
"Its been a month ago my king." The scholar said as he keeps his head on the ground afraid to meet the eyes of the old king.
"A few weeks ago? It's the same time that the Helios empire have inform us regarding the worsening situation in the great fortress and yet you just said this vital information to me a month after it happen." He yelled in anger.
"I do not dare to disturb you, your highness, you strictly forbade us to come inside of your room without important matters." The scholar tremblingly said in fright.
"Do you think this is not important? The demonic beast in the northern continent is back in action, and a mysterious fog has suddenly appeared in my own backyard, and yet, I'm the last person to know about this news. If Aide hasn't personally sent me the message then I would remain oblivious to this situation. If I hadn't gotten out of seclusion by myself it seems like you all don't have the plan to send it to me." The king said in anger as his eyes almost burn a hole through the body of the people present in this hall.
Wild killing intent also started to ferment in the air as king Fazzadh's emotions were released.
"It seems like most of you have already forgotten who am I." king Fazzadh said in a cold tone.
"Of course not your highness, but this is really not considered a piece of important news. Queen Latifa has already asked for the help of the Helios empire in regard to this situation, and sir Aide is already standing guard on that place. He also said that the fog has already stopped spreading and no longer post a threat to the kingdom." The scholar said immediately as they all bowed their heads.
"The Helios empire, the Queen has asked them for assistance?" king Fazzadh said in alarm.
"You all considered this as unimportant and yet the Helios empire is already involved in this matter!" King Fazzadh yelled loudly as the mana surrounding his body surged towards the room making the wall on his back crack in pressure.
"Fools,,,, all of you are fools." King Fazzadh scream in a short breath as he constantly hit the floor with his wooden staff.
"I shouldn't have trusted your team of magic scholars with this task, but I have no other choice since you're the only faction in this kingdom that wasn't involved with the nobility." King Fazzadh with gritted teeth.
The magic scholar is an organization that was created at the same time that the Turox kingdom was established with the aim of rediscovering the lost knowledge of the ancient past.
The nature of magic scholar is more in line with studying and spending huge amount of money for the experiment this has caused the aristocrats to rarely associates themselves with them in fear that magic scholars would suck them dry for more funding.
The only reason why they're still existing till to this day is because of the important information that they have found out and recovered from various experiments in exchange for spending huge amounts of money on countless precious resources. The magic scholar has allowed the Turox kingdom to have a solid backbone in training their own wizards without the help of other countries.
King Fazzadh is aware of the ongoing skirmishes between the aristocracy but he doesn't care since he is still alive and considered as one of the most powerful wizards in the kingdom even though he was injured. He rather focuses on studying things that would help him recover faster than dealing with kingdom affairs.
King Fazzadh was also the previous head of the wizard school for the gifted children of the kingdom also known as the Turox royal academy. Which is a learning institute for both knights and wizards. This is also the place where Aide has shown his talent for magic at a very young age, attracting his attention to personally teach Aide magic.
This is the history of why Aide is loyal to King Fazzadh because he is just an ordinary man without any backing, his life would remain the same and he can't enjoy lots of things without the help of the king.
"Please forgive us king Fazzadh this is a mistake on our part." The scholar tremblingly admitted in shame.
Since King Fazzadh has become injured during the great war his personality has become different and it was known by everyone. He only maintain his old self when he was with his family or with his student which is Aide, that's why the magic scholar inside the hall was so afraid to meet his gaze.
For they know that they might encounter his wrath if they ticked him of.
"Nevermind, I understand that all of you are just a bunch of people, who only know how to make research and conduct magic experiment. I didn't really put any expectations towards this plan at the very beginning. You don't even want to associate yourself with the nobility, it's all thanks to the kingdom's support that you guys were able to survive till to this day." King Fazzadh said in disappointment as his gaze settled on the documents that were sent by Aide.
"Thank you for granting us your mercy our king." The scholar said in delight after finding out that the king didn't bore a deep grudge against them.
"What is this? 25 junior knights are missing from various noble houses and 5 senior knights from the army, with thousands of soldiers declared as deceased!" Said by King Fazzadh in alarm as he read the transcript report.
"Quick, give me a brief explanation about this report if none of you can explain this a bunch of heads will roll upon this floor." King Fazzadh yelled again in anger.
"King have mercy."
"Your highness calmed down we can explain this."
"We admit our mistake but please give us a chance to survive."
The cries of the people echoed in the hall after hearing King Fazzadh's declaration.
"Chief Nigel I hope you have a great explanation regarding this situation I thought it doesn't pose a threat against us then what is this report against the missing soldier and knights of our kingdom." Solemnly said by the king.
"Please calm your anger my king, this is all the fault of those nobles who don't want to follow sir Aide." Nigel said quickly as he began to explain everything.
"When the reports of sir Aide reached the kingdom, Queen Latifa immediately ordered to send a military force to that place, to guard against the possible attack of mutated creatures. But the problematic circle of Nobles also heard this news, and they all clamored to go with the army in order to gain merits. The Queen doesn't see any problem with this request so she allowed them to go." Nigel, the Chief of magic research said in a tired voice as he began to tell everything.
"But this is also the cause of the problem. Because even though sir Aide is a high wizard, those knights from the noble family don't listen to him and he is also incapable of controlling them from entering the fog, no matter how many times he warns them against the possible danger." Nigel stops for a moment as he takes a peek at king Fazzadh's expression that currently shows interest in the report.
"Each one of these 25 junior knights is a member of the various clan of the Turox noble family and even though sir Aide is widely known as a powerful wizard the noble circle doesn't really respect him that much and sir Aide doesn't care either." Nigel said with a bitter expression because even he the chief head of magic research gets some unsightly gazes from some overly proud noble.
"Due to this situation when they reach the forbidden place they all decided to enter the fog, bringing with them, some of our soldiers. At first, everything was fine and they only find a few mutated creatures, so they all treated it as a playground. But after a month a huge number of mutated creatures suddenly appeared inside the fog trapping most of our people inside of it and from then on we never saw them once again." Nigel said to king Fazzadh with a small smile hanging on his lips.
"Hmmm." King Fazzadh's only response to Nigel as he understands that this man gloats upon those people for their foolishness.
"I can understand the reason for those missing knights from the noble family since they aren't really that powerful compared to our royal army, but you still haven't explained to me the disappearance of my 5 intermediate knights. This number of royal knights is enough to defeat these 25 junior knights by themselves and yet they also become missing." King Fazzadh said in a dark tone.
"The various noble family should take this blame your highness they insist to send a rescue mission inside the fog that causes us to lose our strong fighters including potential future knights from the royal army." Nigel explains as he bowed his head showing a triumphant smile underneath his lips without King Fazzadh's awareness.
"Damn" yelled by King Fazzadh in rage.
"Aide must have sent me something else other than this right? I wanted to know everything." The king said in fury.
"Sir Aide also sent this item your highness." Nigel said as he took out a scroll that is sealed with magic.
"Then all of you can go back now, I'll read this first." the king said as he went back towards his room.
"Bliance" murmured by king Fazzadh as a bright magic circle appeared on his hands unlocking the seal that Aide have put into it.
As a Grand-level wizard, king Fazzadh was able to cast a spell with just a word from his mouth without using a complicated chant.
Bliance is a high-level spell that only an intermediate wizard and up can cast, and if someone has unlocked the seal that the previous caster has left behind they would immediately know about it as each seal is like a thread of magic connected to them.
Of course, Bliance is not just a normal spell because in order to unlock the seal the caster should know the sequence of mana diffusion because "Bliance" was like a puzzle that only two people can know in advance and each spell has a unique way to diffuse its mana.
It's like the safety mechanism of the seal if the caster got it incorrectly by 3 times the seal would work its magic and it would destroy the items immediately.
"Hmmm, I see so that's what happen." Whispered by King Fazzadh as he read the sealed documents that were sent by Aide.
"It seems like troubled times are coming once again, I just hope that I already recovered to my peak power at that time." He uttered in desolation.