When A Mage Revolts

That night in the castle of the City of Snow.

"Your Highness! Your Highness! Don’t run about, I’ll find you your cat. If the General sees you running around in the castle, he’ll get mad at you again!"

Two silhouettes ran past the quiet hallway, one chasing after another. The servant looked nervous as he worriedly tried to ask the Princess to quieten down.

The guards on night watch witnessed the scene and shook their heads, yawning in the process. "Not again," they groaned.

Honestly, this was not the first time this had happened. When this first happened, they rushed to help stop the Princess and escorted her back to her room. Gradually, they realized that as long as they stood near the door to prevent the Princess from escaping the castle, she would eventually be caught by the servant and then be dragged back to her room. Thus, they grew lazy and stopped helping in future chases.

This was not in their job description anyway, so why would they intervene?

The guards yawned and continued their patrol and guard duties.

Meanwhile, the two speeding silhouettes ran past them and slowly left their field of vision. Their rapid footsteps gradually disappeared down the empty hallway.

Half a minute later.

"Shhh…. Sleep tight."

The servant chased the Princess into a more isolated storehouse in the castle. Suddenly, a mysterious man clad in black clothing walked out from the corner and tapped lightly on the servant's shoulders. A shudder ran through the servant’s body before he collapsed listlessly to the ground, totally unconscious.

The Princess stopped running to stand by the man in the black clothing.

"Good girl. Next time, don’t let him make so much noise when you come here. Some people might get angry if you disturbed the others in the castle."

Her Highness’ eyes were soulless as she stared at the man. She nodded obediently.

The man in black looked around. After he felt that the coast was clear, he turned and spoke to the Princess, "Alright, you can pass it to me now."

The Princess nodded dumbly and took a ball of paper out from her pocket to give to the man.

However, as the man grabbed the ball of paper from her hand and opened it to begin reading, they heard a voice from behind them. It seemed to have come from another room.

"So it’s true that the guards in the castle are too lenient, huh?"

The man in black was stunned. Then, he probably realised the circumstances he was in and immediately turned to run, the paper tightly gripped in his hand. However, before he could even take the first step, a gust of hot wind hit him blew him up, holding him upside down in the air. He could not escape now.

The silhouettes of Benjamin and the General finally stepped out from another room.

"That’s amazing. Although you only had one night, you had managed to lure the Church’s spy out from hiding." The General nodded as he looked at the man hanging upside down in the air.

"It’s pure luck." Benjamin’s voice was calm. "He was the impatient one that insisted on contact tonight. If he hadn’t made a move, I probably wouldn’t have been able to catch him."

The man in black struggled in panic in the air as he listened to their conversation. Unfortunately, he was enveloped by a shapeless steam which absorbed every bit of force he exerted. It was basically impossible for him to escape.

"Release me! I…. You’ll never get away with this." The man abruptly stopped struggling as he realized that it was impossible for him to escape the steam. He started to yell at the two men.

Benjamin shook his head as he snorted coldly.

"Stop wasting your energy," said Benjamin as his eyes fixed on the man, "You’re shouting to alert your accomplices in the castle so that they can hide, right? Sadly, I’ve isolated your voice; there’s no way that your voice will transmit out of this room regardless of how loud you scream."

The man in black froze.

The General approached him and tore the mask off his face with immense strength.

"You."

The General frowned when he saw the identity of the man in black. He looked slightly disappointed. Benjamin studied the man and remembered that this person was probably a guard in the castle. Benjamin saw him when he entered the castle earlier today.

General Stuart busied himself in expanding the military power after he came to power in an effort to deal with the riots. He absorbed new recruits without much background checks, which probably made becoming a guard one of the easiest ways to infiltrate the castle.

Benjamin controlled the steam to shake the spy to make the piece of paper slip fell from his grasp. The General walked to pick up the paper and saw that its contents were coincidentally the agreements that Benjamin had just discussed with the General earlier that day.

The Church had controlled the Princess and made her write the contents of the agreement onto a paper a piece of paper so they could get the information without having one of their own men in the meeting room.

Benjamin’s am eyebrow arched at the thought.

There’s actually nothing confidential in the agreements aside from some details about the Academy of Magic. The contents of the paper were exactly that; he deduced that the Church was probably up to something if they were suddenly collecting information like this.

Benjamin immediately went on guard.

"Why is the Church collecting information about the Academy of Magic?"

The man snorted and remained silent, his lips shut tightly.

The General landed a heavy punch on the man’s stomach before he spat, "You rascal, who else is your partner in crime in the castle? How many are they? Tell me everything, or I’ll make you regret the day you were born!"

The spy curled into himself in pain and trembled in midair, but his mouth remained shut. After seeing this, the General landed a few more blows. By the end of it, the spy’s face was caked with blood, and some of his teeth were missing.

However, after some silence, the man just croaked, "Go to Hell."

The General once again tightened his bloodied fist.

"General Stuart, this isn’t the way to do it. Let me try." Benjamin stepped in front, no longer amused at the situation. "Give me half an hour, and I promise he’ll spill anything he knows."

The General looked taken aback, but still nodded.

Hence, Benjamin brought the spy to an empty room and shut the door. The General waited by the door, but as time passed, no sounds were heard from inside the room. General Stuart could not help but look confused.

He walked over, intending to knock and ask about the situation. However, the words of the Prime Minister rang in his ears and he stopped himself in his tracks.

This young mage had a scary amount of potential in him. General Stuart understood that he would want day want him on their side and he should avoid becoming enemies with him at all cost. If he could use this opportunity to resolve the tensions between them, then it would be extremely beneficial to him.

And so, the General took a deep breath before nodding his head as if coming to a decision. He stood by the door and continued to wait.

Approximately 40 minutes later.

"Sorry, he had quite a tight lip. I took longer than expected." The door swung open and Benjamin stepped out. He passed a paper to the General. "However, I did manage to obtain the full list of names of the spies in the castle."

The General held the paper in his hand. He was speechless as he slowly turned to look into the room.

The spy was sprawled on the ground with no sign of injuries on his body. However, his face…. his face was as pale as a dead man’s, with eyes so dead that it sent chills down the General’s spine.

What tactic was that?

General Stuart did not dare to inquire. Instead, he shook his head and looked at the paper Benjamin gave him. There were 6 names on the paper, and upon closer inspection, the General realised that all of them were guards in the castle, with five of them being new recruits. The remaining one had already been a guard for quite a long time.

Five, huh… that would not be very difficult to deal with.

He put the name list away before he turning the speak with Benjamin.

"Thank you for your assistance, kind sir. I think our biggest problem has been solved."