In the family mansion, Aja welcomed Grand Duke Liza, his father, who had just returned home after dealing with government affairs.
As the core of the family, the father and son calmly finished their dinner and came to the small study. This was the main place where Duke Liza dealt with his affairs. Outsiders were not allowed to enter, and even the cleanliness of the room was personally cleaned and tidied by his trusted butler. Trespassers were killed by the Duke's guards.
As the heir of the Liza family, Aja needed his father's permission to enter this room. He could not barge in without permission. After all, he had a few younger brothers and cousins waiting for him to make a mistake. And this time, his father had brought him into this study to give him a chance to make up for his failure.
"Father." Aja stood respectfully in front of the desk with his hands down.
Duke Liza poured himself a cup of spring water that the servants had fetched from outside the city in the morning. He also poured a cup for his son and gestured for him to sit down. "Tell me more about the situation in detail."
"Yes." Aja told him again in detail about the day when he had summoned the magician. He also added his own observations and opinions in the statement. These were things that had not needed to be said in the court before, and the Emperor did not want to hear them either. That Supreme Master was quite persistent in his own judgment.
But in the small study, Duke Liza allowed his son to join in these thoughts. The two of them would discuss with each other and correct the wrong judgment. This was the Grand Duke's way of training his heir.
Rather than let the other party think about it himself and run into him with a result full of mistakes, it was better to participate in the discussion as an assistant. The latter method of cultivation was much more difficult to grasp than the former. But Duke Liza thought he had done a good job. At least he had not trained a yes-man who was overcautious and overcautious.
After the statement of the matter came to an end, Aja said, "Father, is His Majesty really not willing to continue using his power to deal with that magician?"
Duke Liza shook his head and said, "According to what I know of him, he will not do it again. Our Majesty is not the kind of person who will hold on to small benefits no matter what. "
"What about us? We have spent so much effort. We can't let the Kavey family laugh at us. " The reason why Aja was so persistent was that this was a trap for the magician. It was a chess piece that his father, Grand Duke Liza, had planned.
When the Emperor issued the edict, it could not be said that he was being used or that he had his own intentions. This scheming and astute Emperor did not take this small matter seriously at all. He simply allowed the old official to do as he pleased. In any case, what he owed today could be repaid with interest another day. This could only be considered a small game between the ruler and his subjects.
If that magician accepted the order and came to the palace, there would naturally be a way to force out everything he knew. Then, all kinds of accidents would happen, and the magician would die a tragic death. As long as this kind of thing was done well, Grand Duke Liza would be able to swallow most of the benefits without even showing his face.
If they did not respond to the imperial edict, they would have even more reason to send out the imperial forces on the surface and openly list this person as a target that must be killed. Even if the other party was a well-known figure in the Holy City of Estali, the mages would not risk angering the Empire to protect someone who had offended the dignity of the Empire and was listed as a mortal enemy.
However, after the 14th Prince joined the fray, all of these plans were no longer effective. If that magician was summoned to the capital, there was a great chance that the 14th Prince would come back with him. That would be a disaster. If he did not come, no one would have the guts to send people to punish that magician. Because that would be like reminding the 14th Prince of his own existence. It would be strange if he did not cause a huge disaster.
To the nobles of the Empire, the magic prince was already a disaster level scourge. No one wanted to go against him. Those who were stubborn in the past were all dead. Now, everyone, including the Emperor, thought that what the eye did not see, the heart did not grieve over. Who would dare to let him come back?
"I heard that you made a fool of yourself when you went this time." Grand Duke Liza did not answer his son's meaningless question. Instead, he brought up another matter.
Knowing that his family's guards would not be able to hide his embarrassing appearance at the time, Aja simply lowered his head and said, "Your son has lost his composure. Please punish me, father."
Although he was rather displeased that his family members, especially his successor, had behaved so unbearably in front of outsiders. But when he thought about how he was facing the magic prince, all his anger cooled down.
Everyone knew that His Majesty the Emperor's 14th son had killed his own twin brother. Therefore, the royal family had stripped him of his inheritance and banished him. In fact, that was only the beginning of everything.
No father would hate their own children. Even if he was the Emperor, as long as it did not involve regicide, he was just an ordinary father. Not to mention that when Azad did that, he was only six years old. In everyone's hearts, they thought that there would be a chance to educate him.
But in the end, when the 14th Prince was banished from the palace, it was known that he had killed a total of III (3) imperial concubines, V (5) imperial princes, II (2) imperial princesses, VII (7) of the first-tier heirs of the grand dukes, I (1) grand duke, IV (4) duke, LXVII (67) of the lower ranks, and … half of the personal guard, VBA (5000).
"Forget it. You only survived that night by relying on luck. Those with courage are all dead. It's too much for someone like you to face that person directly. "
That bloody night, the entire palace seemed to have been made of flesh and blood. Everywhere one looked was bright red, and everywhere one stepped on was covered with broken limbs. Human lives were like the most worthless things. No matter if they were noble or lowly, once they were broken and scattered all over the ground, they would all look the same. Those who were not noble were more beautiful in their remains.
In the beginning, there was no lack of brave people, and no one took a fifteen-year-old boy seriously. But no one could stop the culprit. If it were not for the personal guard that stepped forward and used their bodies to stop him, more nobles would have died that night. Aja was one of the lucky ones who managed to escape that night.
"Damn it, that bastard!" Father and son cursed at the same time.
Everyone knew that the Guevana Empire was the first alliance formed by all the Homo sapiens after the Dark Ages. Even after the humans had taken over the world, every emperor would still use marriage to gain the trust of the hundreds of races other than the humans. So in the Empire, mixed blood was very common, and there were still some who insisted on having pure human blood. But whether it was pure or not … no one knew.
One of the major results of the marriage between the royal family and other Homo sapiens was that sometimes the royal family's descendants would show signs of atavism. This meant that there were bloodlines that did not belong to humans. These people either died young or survived their weak childhood and became very strong. If the mother's bloodline was not pure human, then the possibility of giving birth to such a special child was even higher.
And Azad's mother was a succubus, one of the very few demons that formed groups in the Maze. But some people said that the ecology of demons was the same in the beginning. It was just that the circumstances of their growth were different, so they became different demon races. And Azad's situation, everyone thought that he had turned into a demon through and through.
Thinking of the tragic situation back then and the humiliation this time, Aja could not help but ask, "Father, now that we are prepared, is there really nothing we can do to him? At that time, I was just caught off guard by him. "
"You know that in order to resist back then, the Empire used all of its resources. But in the end, it cost the lives of eight great mages and seventeen great swordsmen to make that prince retreat. The only way to be sure is to lure him into a magic tower at the level of a Warlock Saint and rely on the ever-changing traps to deal with that person. Other than that, don't even try. "Li Sa warned his son.
After that night, even if those who survived, there were not many who could pull themselves together. His son could still hold on to the performance that a Grand Duke's heir should have, which was already quite outstanding among his peers. There was no way to ask for more.
"Father, what about His Majesty? What does His Majesty think of his son? "Aja gritted his teeth and asked. Although the family title was' Grand Duke Li Sa ', this position was ranked in the line of succession to the throne, although it was very far behind. And of course, he saw the intrigue between his father and the Emperor.
But Li Sa said with some disappointment: "If he hadn't destroyed half of the personal guard corps and killed many greater aristocrats that night, the Emperor wouldn't have given up on his son. Before that, no matter how much pressure the courtiers put on him, the Emperor was like a lion protecting its cub, not allowing anyone to touch his child. But in the end, that night, he also became a target. … "
At that time, most of the older Grand Dukes had returned to their fief. They handed over the capital, the core of power, to the next generation to worry about. Anyway, with the Emperor around, it didn't matter whether the tool was himself or his son. But that bloody night had scared too many people. Afterwards, the courtiers also aroused an unprecedented reaction, which made the Emperor give in.
"… there was the subsequent punishment of being stripped of his title and right of inheritance. But as you know, even after the banishment order was issued, that bastard still lived in the Imperial Palace for more than half a year. So you asked me what the Emperor would think of his son; I can only tell you that no matter what, he is still his son. Similarly, he could not allow others to point fingers at him. Don't even think about it. And … "
Hearing that there seemed to be a turn for the better, Aja asked quickly: "And what?"
"How do you know that what that person did wasn't the result of His Majesty's indulgence?"
"How … how is that possible." Aja said in surprise.
"Regardless of whether the sword is controlled or not, with His Majesty's means, there are still ways to make use of it. Judging from the results, all the aristocrats were intimidated by the tyranny of the 14th Prince, so they didn't dare to force the royal family too much, because no one could guess how His Highness would react. For the Emperor, is there a better situation than this? "
Aja said incredulously at his father's words: "His Majesty can do this?"
"The only reason why the chess piece is not controlled is that your chess skills are not good enough. Study hard. Take all the experiences of failure as nutrients for your growth, and try to find your own path when you can make mistakes. As you can imagine, the future will only be more difficult, not simpler. "
Duke Li Sa opened a document regretfully. It contained several major changes in the Mysterious Land in recent years, and the core of these changes was the Wizard, Guebrach Tripwood. Is it a good thing or a bad thing to be unable to control this man? He couldn't say for sure.
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