Today is the 20th of Cancer. Right now I am inside the Cruxadia castle on my way to speak with The King.

As I enter the throne room I see that there are a bunch of people here. Maxoiliodas is one of those people. He is near The King.

“Good morning King, Queen, Prince.” I say as I bow in respect. Everyone is looking at me with some level of either anger or shame. I am using my normal clothes and they are not exactly royal quality.

“Good morning, you may stand up.” The King says to me.

“Thank you. Hey Maxoiliodas!” I say as I stand up.

“What?” He asks somewhat angrily.

“Fuck you!” I say as I show my middle finger to him. Everyone in the room is flabbergasted or at least pretend to be.

“You should show a little more grace.” The Queen says to me.

“I am sorry. I saw that you have walking trash near you so I thought I should do something to make him leave without starting a fight.”

“You speak too much.” Maxoiliodas says...

“Anyway, you probably know why we are here, right?” The King asks me.

“I can imagine a few reasons why.”

“We are here to discuss the end of your research in magic.”

“I am all ears.”

“After seeing the documents and hearing the reports I must ask that you stop you research and do not expose your research to more people.”

“Yeah, not gonna happen.”

Soon the extras in the rooms start to show discontent with my choice of words.

“Silence!” The King shouts. Everyone shuts up immediately. “May I hear your reasons?”

“My reason is that pile of waste in the form of an elf.”

“Insults will get you nowhere.” Maxoiliodas says to me.

“What do you mean?” The Queen inquires.

“He broke a deal that he himself made. So unless he plans to give me an alternative, I will continue.”

“And what was this deal?” The King asks.

“He would teach an elf girl that is currently in my care magic so she could fulfill her objective if she managed to awaken the ability to use magic but he had no intention of actually doing as he thought that she never would be able to. He withheld crucial information that affects the future of the girl and shows no sign of remorse.”

“Is this true?” The King asks Maxoiliodas.

“Technically speaking, Yes.”

“I will not pry into the details for now as it looks like something personal between you two but it seems you will not stop unless you can fulfill the objective of this girl, am I right?”

“That would help.”

“And what would that objective be?”

“A spell capable of opening a portal to anywhere.”

“She could have learned the runes for the Rift Portal, didn’t she?”

“You read the report yourself, Majesty. Those who never used runes and came to use spells like I do become unable to use them. She is one of the people where this applies. If he had told us this information when he discovered it we would not be here.”

“... Then what would be your argument for the Kingdom to let you continue?”

“First, my magic is more cost efficient. Second, one doesn’t need to study for years and years to get at a reasonable level. Third, magic will not be limited by so many rules so people will be able to improve their lives.”

“But there is a danger to it, isn’t it?”

“There is a danger to everything. If you don’t want unprepared people to use magic just create a law or something that requires people to pass some kind of basic training to legally use magic in non-emergency situations.”

“That would put a strain in the coffers of the Kingdom. If we didn’t filter what is available to the public, everyone would try to learn magic and chaos would happen.” Maxoiliodas says.

“It is as he says.” The King says.

“Then what do we do?”

“I command that you stop your research into magic.”

“Ha, you wish. If that’s all I will be going.” I say as I begin to turn around to leave.

“Stop! There must be something you can receive in exchange for this request.” The Queen says to me.

“I may have, but no one will comply with my wishes.”

“Then Speak.”

“I want his head on a plate.” I say while pointing to Maxoiliodas. For a second everyone in the room considered it.

“That's impossible. What is your other request then?” The King asks.

“I want this castle.”

Everyone in the room is outraged.

“This is no place for jokes.” The King says to me.

“I am not joking. If you really want me to stop you either grant one of these two or kill me.” I promised Alfina to help her go back and intend to try my best to fulfill that promise.

“You speak big words for a small child.” Maxoiliodas says.

“Shut up. The only reason I didn’t hunt you down is just so that she can do it herself.”

“You speak like you could defeat me.”

“And you speak like you would actually fight me.” I say as I let my hair go red.

“Stop this!” The King shouts. “ You are my subject and I expect that you will follow my orders.”

“That is where you are wrong, Zigmund. I don’t give two shits about this Kingdom, in fact, the only reason I am still here is because of stuff I promised to do to other people. So unless you have the balls to force me to be your subject I expect that you shut up.” I pretty much shout back at him.

Everyone in the room is in silence but I can see a few angry faces.

“And just one thing to everyone here. If anyone here goes after the people that are currently affiliated with me, you can expect to not be alive for too long, and everyone around you for that matter.”

“Your power must have gone to your head.” Maxoiliodas says as he walks forward towards me.

“You might have the biggest dick in the magic town but I actually use mine.” He is the most powerful mage in the world as far as I know.

“Enough! Time to stop this! You may go and do as you wish. Just don’t harm the people.” The King shouts at me.

“But your majesty, I can take care of this.” Maxoiliodas says.

“You are dumb, aren’t you? Can you fend off all the damage our fight would cause?”

“You speak like you have that much power in you.”

“...” Did he go senile or something? Or he has so much mana that he can’t tell the difference between someone with no mana and someone with high mana?

“You may go.” The King says to me. I just turn my back and leave.

I begin to walk to a window as I don’t trust the mages here anymore. They could trap me somewhere I probably couldn’t escape using the Rift Spell.

Before I reach the window a rift opens near me and the Queen jumps out of it.

“Wait!”

“What?”

“Why are you doing all this?”

“Why shouldn’t I? I want something and I am doing what I think I need to do to achieve it. You are all trying to get in my way so you either move or try to stop me.”

“Please reconsider. There are other reasons besides what you probably think that makes my husband think you should stop.”

“I am all ears.”

“If everyone can become a mage, anyone in our country would count as a potential member of the military and the other nations would see that as us breaking our treaties.”

“Just teach them the method. If everyone knows, it’s an even playing field.”

“It’s not so simple.”

“Then I will be going if you don’t mind. Also send a letter or something in my place telling that I will be coming back without the use of your mages.”

The Queen was about to say something but she stopped. I jump out of the window and fly as high as I can.

When I start to see the clouds more closely I stop. I put as many barriers as I can in front of me in the shape of a drill. I also cast healing fire on myself and begin to fly south towards Sagrada as fast as I can. The healing fire is keeping my body condition and the barriers are reducing the G force I am feeling. I probably broke the sound barrier as I arrived in Sagrada with the sun still showing up. Good thing I was really high up or I would have sent some houses flying.

“You have some explaining to do.” Sophia says to me as soon as I enter the mansion. She is somewhat angry.

“Can I eat something at least?”

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“NO!”

“... ok, let’s talk. What do you want to hear about?”

“Why did you insult The King?”

“Offense is taken, not given.”

“You asked for the castle.”

“They were asking me to stop using magic.”

“Weren’t they asking that you stop researching how your magic works?”

“Sophia, research and use are not two different things for me. There is no data on my type of spellcasting as far as I know so anything I observe that is related to my magic, in any way, is considered research by any definition I know.”

“Ah!” She screams for a moment. “How are you going to resolve this?”

“It depends on how people will answer.”

“What do you mean?”

“If they do nothing, I will do nothing. If they come after me or anyone I like, I will erase them from existence.”

“That would be a little too barbaric, wouldn’t it?” Monica says, intervening in our conversation.

“I don’t know how you two would act if someone tried to hurt me because of things you did, but in my case, if you two become targets of any kind, whoever is going after you two better learn on how to not exist. Everyone here is pretty much my family and no one fucks with my family.” Family is not tied by blood.

Sophia stops for a few seconds.

“Ok, alright, let’s hope nothing happens.” Sophia says, a little embarrassed.

“Can I eat something now?”

“Go ahead.”

I take a look around the kitchen and grab some fruits, bread and water. I eat enough to fill me up until dinner. After that I did some work in the office.

Dinner came and went, the night did the same, I didn’t sleep a wink again. After my morning training, as I came back to my room before breakfast, I saw a letter on my bed. I check it to see if there is a spell or anything there but I don’t feel any mana from it. With that in mind I open and begin to read it.

“This is not a threat. Do not leave the country. More information will soon arrive your way. Also, beware of this man” In the rest of the paper, after the message, there is a drawing of what I presume is a goblin with a very big head and nose. He also has a tattoo on his forehead saying death. I guess I wouldn’t mistake another goblin for him too soon.

This is not a letter like the ones I received from the people in the demon territory so I will stay a little more aware of my surroundings. Have to make sure that this letter wasn’t made to make me stressed or something. I gained a few more enemies so it would be better to be prepared for anything for a time.

I burn the letter and continue with my day. I teach in the morning and work in the afternoon and part of the night before going to bed, to not sleep.

I was expecting at least one person to approach during the day but no one unusual came.

Next morning, while I was teaching outside the walls, I began to hear a loud noise coming from the north. It’s the type of noise that you can’t really tell what it is, but it’s so loud that you hear something.

I quickly stop the lesson and tell everyone there to be ready to run towards the city if they see flames in the sky. I can’t imagine anything peaceful making this kind of noise.

I fly towards the north gate and see that on the horizon there is an army marching towards the city. My first instinct is to shoot them as I am 99% sure they are the Cruxadia army due to their armor matching the ones of the heavy knights I saw inside the castle and during the new year’s battle.

I grab Sophia as fast as possible and bring her to the north gate just so I can get my orders faster.

“... Let’s receive them at the gate.” She says to me.

“As you wish.”

We fly down to the outside of the gates and wait for a few minutes.

The soldiers finish their march and open the way for four carriages.

“Open the way for The Crown.” The man driving the first carriage yells at us.

“For fuck’s sake.” I say out loud.

“Ok.” Is the only word Sophia can say as she signals the guards to open the gate. She is shocked.

We escort the carriages and the soldiers until we reach the central fountain where the carriages surround it and the soldiers surround the square as much as they can. The rest scatter around the city as far as I can tell.

Everyone in the city is somewhat confused and afraid but they can’t really do anything when both Sophia and I are just standing in the middle of everything. From their point of view we are probably handling it like everything we did so far.

The carriages aren’t really that fancy. They aren’t common ones, but they aren’t the ones I imagined the Royal family using. They are made of redwood, are really square, like they were mass produced, if not for some cloth on top of it, they would seem like normal carriages from a distance.

All the carriage’s doors open. From the one in front of me and Sophia, The King and The Queen show themselves. In the other ones were the prince along with another man and two girls. One another one I saw what I believe to be 5 of the people that were in the throne room 2 days ago. In the last one was Maxoiliodas and two mages.

“Welcome to Sagrada.” Sophia says while kneeling, trying to follow the code in this type of situation.

“Hello.” I say as I wave at them.

Soon enough the people around the city get who these people are and they do the following in any order you can imagine: panic, try to show respect, flee and come back.

“Greetings.” The King says to us.

“Hello my dear.” The Queen says to Sophia as she signals that she can stand up.

“Sophia, as the governor of the city I request that you gather everyone that lives here and make them come here as fast as possible.” The King says.

“As you order your majesty!” Sophia says like a soldier before running towards the guard, surely to give some orders.

“You don’t seem so concerned with us as we thought you would be.” The Queen says to me.

“Look, my opinion of the royalty of this country as a whole still is neutral. None of you tried to fuck me over so far, but you also didn’t help that much either. Right now I am just waiting to see if what is going to happen will be a positive or a negative in our relationship.”

They don’t respond to me and leave the area. They go around greeting some people, looking at some shops, even getting some food all while more and more people gather near the central fountain.

Everyone that came in the carriages also ignored me so I just sat and waited.

It took close to an hour but almost everyone from the city that was in the city is here. The knights close the square more tightly, probably for security reasons, and the King, along with the Queen and Maxoiliodas float to the top of the fountain, staying on top of an invisible platform. There the King begins to speak. His voice was being amplified by a spell so everyone could hear him clearly.

“My citizens. Today I came here to display my power as your King. Most laws are just followed but there will be times where those in power will have to enforce it and I am not an exception to this. This city is a very pleasant place but I can’t say I will be able to enjoy it. The following law was made along with the Great Magic Institute leader and its researchers, so I want you to take the words of this man as my words.” He says, then signals to Maxoiliodas.

“A new way of using spells, without the use of runes was discovered not so long ago and the Institute researched it. We found out that this method is dangerous as even the process of learning it could be fatal. Taking into account that even the unprepared and unfit would be able to learn how to use spells, this law was made to deter those who would try to walk this path from even starting it and probably damaging oneself along with those around.” He stops for a moment and looks straight at me.

“This new method of using spells is called Internal Cast and as of today anyone who uses such type of spell casting is banned from ever doing business with the Institute or any country that is affiliated with it. Teaching it is also banned along with research outside the institute view and control. The punishment for these crimes will vary from imprisonment, to banishment or even death in the worst cases.”

“We are here to show that we will follow through with this law no matter who breaks it. The first offender of it is someone who is on the top of this city. No matter your opinion of her, she broke this law and will be punished.” The Queen says with a somewhat sad tone. I can feel that she didn’t want to say this.

“With my authority as the King I declare Lucia, the assistant of the governor of this city, to be arrested at this instant.” The King says while pointing to me. To his credit I am alone in the middle of a circle of knights. It’s really easy to find me.

I wait a few moments to see if the King is serious and turns out he is. I begin to laugh maniacally. I have to laugh, they can’t be serious.

I take a look around and everyone is just frozen in place, knights included. I fly to the platform where the King is and begin to speak with the one there.

“First I have to congratulate you on having the balls to do this. Second, what the fuck? I need explanations.”

“You gave us no choice.” The Queen says to me.

“You could just have left me alone, you know.”

“That is impossible now.” The King says to me.

“You speak like you have the upper hand here. You have no allies, you are surrounded and we know that you won’t risk hurting innocent people, don’t you?” Maxoiliodas says to me.

I laugh a little more.

“Ok, here is my deal. I will go stand where I was, a random knight will attack me. I will knock him down and you will say that all of this was to catch that knight as he was a demon in disguise or something. After that you all will get the fuck out of here and send me some books about magic.”

Suddenly I start to get a strange feeling from everyone around me.

“Child, you don’t know the dangers of your ways. The most experienced mages couldn’t handle the process, what makes you think that the normal folk will? How many have to die so you will be satisfied.” The King says to me.

“Just so you know, there is a 8 year old and two 15 years old that also use the Internal Cast as it was named. If they can do it with my help, any mage should be able to.” I say as I try to buy some time to just get what is going on. It suddenly feels like the world is looking at me and waiting for me to trip. It’s discomforting.

“That may be true, but that doesn’t mean that everyone will have the same results. I tested it, I lost very good mages. Surrender peacefully and we can get this over with.” Maxoiliodas says to me, a little irritated.

I stop for a minute. I could just beat all of them but this would hurt everyone who is my friend. They at least didn’t go after the others so for now I think my best strategy for a somewhat peaceful solution is to leave. There is also the fact that I think everyone in the city besides me is now under the effect of spell. With each second that passes, the feeling gets stronger. I am feeling like someone is trying to drown me.

“Ok. As much as I want to hit all of you right now I guess it’s better that I just leave then. If you don’t mind I will go pack my stuff and I will leave in about an hour.” I say as I begin to turn.

“Where do you think you will go?” The Queen asks with fear in her eyes.

“First I am going to fuck the Maka Kingdom up. Then I am going to destroy the church. After that I will make sure that the pile of trash here loses his job and after that I will come back here.” I say as I point to Maxoiliodas. Let’s hope this is enough to snap this people out of whatever it is.

“That isn’t an option. This is the last warning. Surrender peacefully or we will do what is needed to capture you.” Maxoiliodas says again. He is very serious about this.

Guess I was too hopeful.

I jump from the platform and fly towards the north as fast as I can. Some mages try to hit me but I am too fast. I land a few kilometers to the north outside the city, just to the side of the road, in an area where there is nothing. Here I wait.

A few minutes later the knights and the mages that I didn’t see arriving, all came to greet me. They all surround me but don’t attack. I wait as I don’t want to be the one who starts this.

After a few seconds of this I see a few of them making a passage for other people. Maxoiliodas, Monica and Sophia, all in battle gear to my surprise.

“Lucia, please surrender. They must have a good reason for all of this.” Sophia says to me.

“How are the girls?”

“They are safe. No one will touch them.”

“Good. Now if anyone wants to try to arrest me, may you please come forward. If not, let me leave, I really don’t give two shits about any of you.” I say to the knights and mages around me. They don’t move a muscle. Sophia on the other hand draws her sword.

“Please Lucia, don’t make me do this.” She says with tears almost coming out of her eyes.

“Sophia and Monica. I quite like you two, but you two probably have more baggage with the Kingdom and the people of it than me. It’s time to choose, I guess. Me or them, don’t worry, I will have no hard feelings.” Logically speaking, I am ready for them to choose the kingdom, sentimentally, it will hurt a little.

Sophia doesn’t say anything. She jumps towards me and tries to slash me. I block it with a weak barrier and draw Mira. As I prepare to counter attack it hits me. This feeling is the same feeling I am getting from Monica, just a thousand times stronger.

“What is going on! Monica, why is everyone with that weird aura I feel from you.” I shout at her but neither her or anyone is responding, like they are all robots.

Sophia takes this opportunity to try and cut me again with her sword. I block her slash with Mira and try to push her back but she doesn’t go away.

With slash after slash she tries to cut me in the same way, at this point I can just dodge it.

When she tries to do the same vertical slash again I try to hit her hands to disarm her but she finally changes what she is doing and tries to kick me while dodging. I use my magic string to hold Yin and block the kick.

Suddenly I feel the aura becoming stronger and Sophia begins to use a spell on herself. She is now coated in a white light that is making her faster and stronger. Every slash she tries to do is probably strong enough to damage Yin and Yang.

I receive every slash with another one of my own creating shockwaves around us that from time to time pushes someone a few centimeters back. I can even try to say anything because it would delay me trying not to get cut. She is not stopping for anything.

I try to put a barrier up but she just cut through it. I want to actually go all out but I feel that if I do that I will not have a way to recover my mana after it.

I move a little around to position myself with my back to Monica. When Sophia hits me I let the impact push me back so I stop near Monica. I take a look at her for a brief second and she is like a broken doll. I can’t see the light in her eyes, like she is not there.

Sophia at least is not attacking me but I don’t think she will stop for too long. I move away and try to think about what is going on while I defend but nothing comes to mind. Who or what would want Monica to tease me to then do this. I am not being affected by this so I must be the target of it, am I not?

For a moment I think about just running away like I said I would but that would leave everyone in the city in this sorry state.

With all these thoughts passing through my mind I suddenly find myself in a very familiar place with a child in front of me.

“Hello Lokir. Nice to meet you again.” I say in the most sarcastic tone I can muster.

“Yeah, yeah. We Have to talk…”