Abe the Wizard

Right now, his majesty Liandre George was not in his palace inside Bakong City. He had some other family meet up with Hoover, who was in a rage at what he had just done.

“Good job! GOOD JOB!” Hoover screamed at the top of his lungs, sarcastically, “Justin! How dare you all take away Abel’s properties when he just became a grandmaster blacksmith!”

The man Hoover was yelling at was Justin George, the top elder of the George Family of the duchy of Carmel. Unlike Hoover, he had been stuck at the knight’s commander rank for many years. Like Hoover, he wasn’t in a good mood right now.

Earl Justin spoke back to Hoover, “Well, look who’s talking! In case you have forgotten, Head Commander Hoover, having Liandre as the king was your idea to begin with. Now that he’s the one taking in charge of confiscating all of Grandmaster Abel’s properties, it’s not like old people such as us can do anything about it, can we?”

Hoover basically grew up with Earl Justin. Now that he was saying stuff like this, he wasn’t sure who he should be mad at. Actually, that didn’t matter much to him right now. More importantly, he needed to get back Abel’s belongings.

“I… ugh! Just… how do you suppose we deal with this, then?”

Earl Justin explained, “Head Commander Hoover, as soon as the words reached me, I told my men to call back the messenger that went to Harvest City. The mansion at Bakong City is now available to be taken back at any time. Not those fruit groves outside the city though, I’m afraid Liandre’s already handed them over to the other noblemen.”

Hoover said with a menacing tone, “Oh, is that so? Those noblemen have some real balls, don’t they? What, do they take the Blacksmith Union as some sort of peace-loving organization or something?” The Blacksmith Union was not, in any sense, a peace-loving organization. To begin with, the reason they had so many branches all over the major human cities was that they were militarily equipped. If they wanted to start a war anywhere, they could always use the teleportation circles they had to transport all their privatized army and weapons. This way, they could protect the welfare of all blacksmiths that were associated with them.

Abel was no exception, of course. He already claimed to be under the Blacksmith Union’s protection when he became a grandmaster blacksmith. However, when he became a wizard, he started to get a lot less support from them. It was especially true when he had to face off Wizard Cliff, who was among the very best of the human wizards. At a time like that, the most that the Blacksmith Union could do was to send Hoover to help him. Earl Justin became extremely worried when Hoover mentioned the Blacksmith Union, “Wow, wow, wow! Take it easy, Head Commander Hoover! i’ll do something about those fruit groves, so don’t bring those Blacksmith Union people into this, okay?”

Hoover raised his chin, “I can’t give you a guarantee on that, Justin. What Liandre did is both a direct insult to the Blacksmith Union and me. You know how much those blacksmiths admire grandmasters. If I hadn’t come here on their behalf, several of their knight’s commanders would’ve already rushed to this place to gain Grandmaster Abel’s favor.”

Early Justin wasn’t sure what to do, “Oh, please, Hoover! Take care of the duchy of Carmel, okay? It’s your home as well, so please make sure that it is peaceful around here!” “Haven’t I done enough, Justin? Tell you what, if I snapped a little bit earlier, Liandre George, that b*st*rd’s head would’ve been cut down already. Do you have any idea how embarrassed I was after I swore to protect Grandmaster Abel?”

The elders looked at each other when Hoover called Liandre George a “b*st*rd.” They didn’t think it was appropriate, but to Hoover’s defense, what Liandre George did was seriously out of the boundaries of what was acceptable. Besides, Hoover was still very pissed. They didn’t want to be attacked for saying the wrong thing in front of him.

Earl Justin said in a pleading voice, “Um, well, Hoover, about Grandmaster Abel’s titles. You’ll have to wait for his majesty to come back. It’s the only way for them to be re-granted to Master Abel.”

Hoover scanned across the elders, “No. ‘His majesty’ can stay in his garden or whatever till the end of time. Just select a new king today. You people, do it. Now. Today.”

Earl Justin almost jumped up from where he was sitting, “What?! We can’t do that, Head Commander Hoover!”

“Oh, you think the idea is too absurd or something?” Hoover said with a menacing smirk on his face, “Because of what Liandre George has done to Grandmaster Abel, he has turned the duchy of Carmel into the official enemy of the Blacksmith Union. As of now, all the knight’s commanders and knight’s head commanders are perfectly willing to swing their blade at Liandre George.”

“Yeah, all to gain Abel’s favor. By the way, Wizard Morton doesn’t know about this whole thing yet, right? Once he does, his very, very good friends, Wizard Yveline and Wizard Murphy, will all be involved in this. Does the George Family have a chance to survive when that happens? I don’t think so!” “Legally speaking, the elders do have the right to dethrone the king when there is a crisis. It is the tradition of the George family, and that’s why I’ve invited you all to talk with me today. Contrary to what you think, this is not as simple as giving Grandmaster Abel back what he originally has.”

Hoover stood up and glared at the frightened bunch of old men in front of him, “Liandre George must not be a king from now on. If he stays on the throne, Grandmaster Abel would not be happy, the Blacksmith Union would not be happy, three wizards would not be happy, and I wouldn’t be happy. And to be frank, I don’t really care about the others. If Liandre stays up, I don’t mind becoming a “kingslayer.” for the sake of my homeland.”

Early Justin was almost on the ground right now, “Agh! Hold on there! Hold on there, please, Head Commander Hoover! I’ll have a talk with the other elders, so just hold your hands!”

Technically, it was possible to impeach the current king. The elders weren’t willing to do it, though. Not only was it going to influence many, many aspects of the duchy’s wellbeing, what was more important for them was that the future king’s attention would go to the elders, who tried to lay low most of the time.

It wasn’t a good idea to be cautioned by the king. Impeachment should be a one-time weapon, and not used as a means to make constant threats. Still, now that the situation became like this, there really wasn’t an alternative for the elders to choose.

Soon, Earl Justin walked to Hoover. Despite their good relations with each other, he couldn’t help but have a stiff tone when he was saying this. “Algernon George will become the new king. Are you okay with that, Head Commander Hoover?”

Hoover knew. He knew that his relationship with the royal family was not going to be the same as before. Still, he didn’t regret it.