top of magic

The slogan about innovation and self-examination within the Holy See has been shouted not just for a day or two, but for a year or two.

Any kind of power, after a long time of scouring, will inevitably be riddled with holes and decay.

This is true of the Empire of Oz, and so is the Holy See.

In Yalong, the counties managed by the nobles and the provinces controlled by the emperor existed in the empire at the same time, and the total amount controlled by the latter was equal to the sum of the former. No one can shake the true reason for reaching.

But in Oz, the concept of province does not exist at all. The land of the empire has long been divided up by the nobles, and the power of the emperor has been emptied by the Holy See.The emperor's decree is only effective in Montada County where the imperial capital is located. Once it is conveyed to other noble territories, whether to listen or not depends entirely on the mood of the nobles in that place.

From a certain point of view, the Oz Empire relies on the existence of the Holy See to maintain the integrity of the entire country. The nobles don't care about the emperor, but fear the colossal Holy See.Now that the Holy See is splitting on its own, the Oz royal family is also being wiped out by the split reformists as a means of establishing their prestige. The cornerstones and bonds that maintain the country disappear and dissipate at the same time, and the whole country naturally falls apart and becomes a mess.

"Now, the power of the Old Church is in the hands of Pope Barca, while the Protestant Church is headed by the former Cardinal Atlas." At the mention of the name Atlas, Baroche's originally flat voice immediately became more obvious hatred, "Atlas was born as an ascetic monk, and he had been serving in the tribunal in his early years. He climbed to the position of cardinal by virtue of his powerful magic and so-called loyalty, and then he turned into a reformist. Now Even fighting against Barcelona, ​​he is short of establishing himself as Pope."

"He killed your family?" Keech asked.

"Now, I can only say that I can't get rid of him." Barosh sneered, "Although Atlas is a reformist, he has no enmity with the Timisus family. After I made a big fuss in the imperial capital, He also sent me a message through the Wizarding Association of Oz, saying that this incident was purely accidental, and he also regrets it."

"He didn't tell you who is the direct murderer?"

"No." Barosh shook his head. "Perhaps, in his view, my hatred will certainly pose a threat to him, but it is far less important than the subordinate who ordered the killing of Timisus."

"Maybe he's just passing the buck." Keech shrugged.

"No, there is another possibility." Barosh's voice became colder and colder, "He doesn't even know how this happened, but he was responsible for the capture of the imperial capital, and he can't get away with it no matter what. , so I had to lower my stance and offered me an olive branch, lest I take all my anger on him."

"Huh?" Kiki was taken aback.

"It's because I was worried about this that I didn't do anything." Barosh gritted his teeth and said, "Atlas is certainly hateful, but the guy who hides behind and fishes in troubled waters is even more unforgivable! If there is really such a thing behind this incident Personal existence, I must let him experience how the Timisus family retaliated against the nemesis!"

Kitsch bit his lip and swallowed back the words that were about to come to his mouth.When he heard the word Holy See, he couldn't help but think of the silver-haired priest Darren, but then he remembered that when Darren left Yani City, his elder brother Xiuqi was by his side. There is Darren's shadow in these things that happened in the Holy See, so I'm afraid Xiuqi will inevitably be involved.

After hesitating for a while, Kiki asked, "Barosh, my brother Xiuqi is also a priest now, will this affect my becoming the president?"

Barosh was slightly taken aback, and quickly asked, "How many people know about this?"

"It's quite a lot. We didn't hide our relationship when we were in Yani City." Keech said.

"I also went to Yani City at that time, but I didn't hear about it." Barosh tilted his head in doubt.

"The nobles all know that, including Prince Siris." Kiki said expressionlessly.

"Noble, hehe, no wonder." Barosh giggled, "Okay, leave this matter to us to solve, it's good that you can think ahead and bring it up honestly, better than Amir's kind It’s better to hide it if you can, and hide it if you can. Hehehe, maybe this is the reason why you can be the chairman, but he can only serve as your aide? Oh, yes, tell me the truth again, Kiki Baby, you yourself are not a believer of the Holy See, are you?"

"I haven't even been in a school run by the Holy See!" Kiki immediately rolled his eyes back at Baros.

"As long as you're not a believer, it's fine." Barosh laughed jokingly, "Don't blame me for talking too much, there is a precedent for this. The president in front of Fernando suddenly gained faith. Inspired, gave up the identity of a magician, joined the Holy See, and even got a cardinal."

"How...how is this possible?" Kiki was dumbfounded.

"I can only say that sometimes, it's not good to know too much." Barosh sighed, "You just listen to this matter as a joke, and the inside story or something, you have to wait until you become the president. I know, I can't tell you now."

——And the inside story?

Kiki was more and more stunned, but Barosh didn't want to go deep into it, and he didn't bother to ask more. He got up and left Barosh's mage tower, went back to his temporary residence, and continued to study magic patterns with Avella.

During this period of time, other people seemed to be very busy, but Kiki was doing nothing, unknowingly, he determined the position of the magic pattern on Avella's body.It's just that the ink used to draw the magic pattern is colored, and people can see it when they take off their clothes.In order to be sure, Keech began to study colorless ink similar to the elemental pen-at least, it cannot be detected by the naked eye.

In the past two years, Avella has made some achievements in the research of pharmacy, because she has learned scroll making before, and she is particularly concerned about the preparation of magic ink. She has more experience in ink preparation than Kiki, and now she has Thoroughly assumed the responsibility of the assistant, found a lot of colorless ink materials in a few days.

The junior magician assessment is in the midsummer of July, and it is only mid-January at this moment. There is still enough time, and Kiki and Avella are not impatient, and continue to study slowly, striving to make this "cheating" perfect.

Hill in the city of Yasha is far less laid-back than Keech.The three southwestern provinces are only separated by one county and one province from the imperial capital of Assia, and the city of Assia is not a defensive city. Although its management is stricter than that of the Jicheng City, the city itself does not have the characteristics of a Jiji City. As defensive as a city, once foreign enemies invade, they can only defend with their lives.

This design should also be attributed to the founding emperor of the Yalong Empire, Emperor Borgia. In this emperor's opinion, if a certain generation of his descendants let the enemy attack the imperial capital Asshai, then there is no need for this guy to be on the throne. If you sit down, you must find a rope to hang yourself, and go to him to apologize!

The emperor didn't seem to have considered that the enemy might come from Assia, but he arrogantly wrote this point of view into his emperor's book and left it as an admonition to his descendants.Fortunately, such a situation has not happened so far. The greatest pressure on the Yalong Empire has always come from outside the borders. Most of the internal disputes can be resolved with money and political means. The chaos before De Rossi's succession was also due to the struggle for the throne The occurrence of royal infighting is not due to any rift between the royal family and other nobles.

But now, the biggest external pressure of the Yalong Empire no longer exists, and the hawks in the main battle are ready to move, but Emperor De Rossi has been silent, turning a blind eye to the chaos in Oz and ignoring it.

Hill himself is also a dove who does not advocate war, and supports Emperor De Rossi's position, but the way Emperor De Rossi upholds his position makes Hill disagree.In his view, domestic peace must be maintained, but there is no need to completely ignore foreign chaos.Just like what he once said to Sirius, the way to participate in the war is not only to send troops, money and bread can be used as weapons to bring victory to the empire.

It's just that Hill is still young, and even his father, Angel, doesn't care much about his opinions. He only thinks of coming to him for inspiration when he has nothing to do.

For example, now, Angor handed over a letter of authorization from De Rossi to Hill, and asked him to go to the Magic Association in Assia to see if he could take advantage of the special relationship between his son and some magicians , seeking some special help during this special period.

Hill was very helpless about the errand imposed on him by his father. This kind of thing is not what he should do as a young civil servant under the age of 20, not to mention that the Magic Association is electing a new president, and it is impossible to avoid suspicion one by one Well, even if the prince or military ministers are sent there, the Magic Association may not be willing to contact them.

Although he knew that his father and Emperor De Rossi were in a hurry to go to the doctor, Hill couldn't disobey him, so he could only send Tina a letter wishing to visit, and only changed to Tina after getting a reply. Dressed in regular attire, he took the heavy news that his father had leaked to him, got into the carriage, and headed to the Magic Association outside the city of Assia.

As Hill expected, although his letter of visit was addressed to Tina and the reply was also in Tina's name, the person who entertained him and admitted him to the Magic Association was Amir.

Seeing Amir whom he hadn't seen for a long time, Hill couldn't help but feel a little complicated, and then thinking that his Kiki was completely controlled by this male magician of unknown origin, the complexity was a little more bitter.

"Long time no see, Your Excellency Amir." No matter what he was thinking, as a nobleman, etiquette should never be lacking. Hill bowed to Amir and greeted him politely as he did every time we met before.

"You're welcome." Amir smiled slightly. Although his words were kind, his tone was businesslike. "I heard that your grandfather seems to be unwell. Is he feeling better now?"

"I really want to tell you, yes, but unfortunately, my grandfather is too old, and even the best physician in the court is helpless." Hill sighed softly and replied with a pun.

"That's really a pity." Amir raised his eyebrows slightly, obviously understood Hill's subtext, and said instead, "The Magic Association has not been peaceful for a while, and His Excellency Fernando left too suddenly, which caused many things to be ignored. It can be put on hold for the time being, and we must wait for the election of the new president to be completed before proceeding."

While talking, Amir has brought Hill to Tina's mage tower.

Tina was sitting in the living room on the first floor of the mage tower. When she saw Hill coming in, she smiled faintly, "Long time no see, Young Master Hill."

"Please don't tease me like that again, Magician Tina." Hill hurriedly bowed and saluted, begging half-truthfully.

"Yes, yes, you have changed from a young master to a master." Tina chuckled, but her smile was no longer as bright as before, "You have grown up, and Kiki has grown up, and you... have all grown up .”

"My condolences, Mage Tina." Although Hill saw the sadness on Tina's face, Hill knew that consolation was useless at this time, so he could only show the respectful attitude he had when he followed Tina back then, letting Tina felt that she had only changed in appearance, but she was still the apprentice who needed her protection in essence.

"Okay, don't be so serious." Tina smiled and waved her hand, "I'm just feeling sad, it's nothing, it's just life, old age, sickness and death, each of us will suffer, and one day, you and I will leave too The world, isn't it?"

"Yeah, everyone is going to die after all." If any nobleman said Tina's words, Hill would definitely turn around angrily on the spot, but if the target was a magician, Hill couldn't care less. Instead, he had to understand what he said, and further catered to him, "However, you are a magician, and your lifespan must be much longer than mine."

"It's hard to say. Accidents are always inevitable." Tina sighed with emotion, and then changed the subject, "By the way, you didn't come here just to visit me, did you?"

"I'm sorry, Magician Tina, I really have other things to do." Hill nodded bluntly. He already understood the truth of what to say when he met someone, and he must never beat around the bush with someone like Tina. Yes, it's easier to suffocate yourself to death in a mud pit.

"If it's important, talk to Amir. I'm just an ordinary middle-level magician now, and I'm sure I can't help you with your important matters." Tina shrugged self-deprecatingly.After Fernando's death, she moved back to Yasha's mage's tower, and she was no longer eligible to travel freely to and from the source island.

"My dear, if you are willing to spend half of the time spent on the magic weapon for meditation, you will be able to wear the purple magic robe by this time next year." Amir walked forward without giving Hill a chance to continue talking. , helped Tina up, and sent her back to the room upstairs.

- Is Amir still going to marry Tina?

Seeing the intimacy of the two, Hill couldn't help but reverie.

Unlike the situation of Hill and Lizzy, although the relationship between Amir and Tina is a well-known secret, the two have never been formally engaged. Even if Amir breaks up with Tina, no one can accuse him of anything.But at the moment, it seems that Amir does not intend to do that. At the critical moment when the Magic Association is holding the chairman election, he did not go to Yuan Island to help Kiki. Instead, he stayed with Tina and accompanied the princess who had lost her aura. sad woman.

Of course, although Tina is no longer the daughter of the president of the Magic Association, she is still the niece of the president of the Yasha branch.However, without Fernando, how secure can Freud's branch president be?Yasha now has three great magicians, especially Everton. Although he is not from aristocratic background, his relationship with the royal family and nobles is equally harmonious. The reason why Hill was able to enter the Magic Association as an apprentice for half a year was because he left Everton's relationship, bought places.

While Hill was thinking to himself, Amir had come down from the stairs, waved to him, and signaled him to find a place to sit down.

Hill didn't pretend to be polite, but he waited for Amir to sit down before sitting opposite him.

"Tell me, what's the matter?" Amir asked straight to the point without talking about him.

"Looking for help." Hill told Emperor De Rossi that he wanted to cooperate with the Magic Association again and use the Magic Association's contact tower to convey military information.

"No." After hearing Hill's words, Amir immediately shook his head without thinking, "You should be very clear that the "Rules for Magicians" clearly stipulates that magicians are not allowed to participate in wars. Unless the target of the war is the Holy See, otherwise use contact It is absolutely impossible to even think about such a thing as the tower conveying military information."

"What if the other party is really the Holy See?" Hill said word by word.

"What?" Amir was taken aback for a moment.

"Of course, this matter is still just a 'speculation'." Hill can bite the word speculation, "There is very little news that can be passed back, and His Majesty the Emperor has not obtained enough evidence. However, there are various signs that, This rebellion has an extremely religious nature, and the participants are as if they have suffered from insanity, and their loyalty is terribly high."

"It's not enough to speculate." Amir said coldly with a downcast face.

"A secret agent saw the organizer of this rebellion and risked his life to bring back the news." Hill sat up straight and said solemnly, "I cannot tell you the origin and identity of this spy, but I can tell you The news he brought back was that the direct leader of the rebellion was Marshal Elan of the Bloodthorn Legion, but beside Elan, there was also a silver-haired priest who was inseparable from him."

After saying the last sentence, Hilton suddenly noticed that Amir's expression became colder and colder. For a moment, he even felt a murderous intent flashed in Amir's eyes, but this feeling passed away in a flash, making it difficult for Hill to judge. Amir Whether the coldness is aimed at him or at the Holy See.

Unsurprisingly, Amir fell silent, as if he was thinking about the reliability of Hill's words, as well as his own position and position in this matter.

But after thinking about it, Amir's answer disappointed Hill very much.

"Unfortunately, I am not fit to intervene in this matter. I can only pass on the news you brought to Floyd." Amir said indifferently, "However, you don't have to expect too much from him. Before the election of Yuan Island is over, no magician will dare to act rashly. Even if the sky falls, they will have to elect a new president to survive.