Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 457 The Truth of the Civil War

Despite his subordinates' best efforts to dissuade him, Harvey still chose to meet with the two court mages who claimed to be the Grand Duke's advisors.

The reason is simple... The series of conspiracies and civil unrest that occurred in the Principality of Saint Valen is so incredible and difficult to understand from any angle.

Why did the Church spread the plague to the royal capital, and why did they frame the spellcaster? Aren't they worried that after provoking a conflict with the Federation, a full-scale civil war would give alien races the opportunity to seize the opportunity to invade?
Now the Glorious Archbishop has died in the church bombing, and Grand Duke Saint Valen is also dying... If you want to know the exact truth, you may have to learn it from the mouths of those court mages who escaped the purge.

"I'll go back to the ironclad ship at the riverside dock first. You can bring these two people back to see me later."

After all, the soldiers who entered the inner city to control the palace were few in number. The fleet stranded at the riverside dock was the area where heavy troops were stored. Returning there to summon these spellcasters could relatively guarantee that no sudden chaos would occur. Although Harvey arrived at the royal capital with the help of a soul puppet, he was unwilling to easily lose his already scarce puppet body due to an attack.

……

When the two parties met, they were both a little surprised.

The two court mages had no idea that the rumored powerful Mage Lord was actually a frail, pale young man who looked no more than twenty years old. However, on second thought, a high-level spellcaster with such great power probably mastered many secret techniques to change his appearance, and his actual age and appearance might not be easily revealed to others.

What Harvey found strange was that the two middle-aged wizards in front of him did not look like aristocratic spellcasters at all. Judging from their behavior and clothing, they were more like alchemists who were obsessed with research and experiments like Chris.

"Excuse me, you two look more like alchemists than the always arrogant court spellcasters."

The two exchanged a glance and smiled wryly, "Your Excellency is perceptive. Logically, we should be called... His Majesty the Grand Duke's alchemy advisors. We are indeed spellcasters, but we actually provide alchemy services to His Majesty the Grand Duke."

Harvey nodded and got straight to the point. "So, as his personal advisors, you should be well aware of why the Grand Duke has become what he is now, right? And what caused the plague that broke out in the capital over a year ago? Why did the Church do this?"

The mage who called himself McKinney was the first to explain, "Saint Valen is a member of the royal family of the Duchy. All the successive Grand Dukes, under the blessing and guidance of the Church, successfully awakened their powerful bloodline talents... But when it came to the current Grand Duke, the bloodline awakening failed."

Seeing that Harvey didn't interrupt, another mage named Collins continued, "Everyone in the Vatican is saying that either His Majesty's bloodline is weak, or... or that he's not even from the royal family. In short, it's all utter nonsense."

The devout young Grand Duke naturally could not bear the contempt and suspicion of his own bloodline from the church. After returning to Saint Valen in anger, he decisively turned his trusting eyes to the spellcaster - he wanted to use the power of alchemy and magic to forcibly awaken the bloodline power of his family and use this method to severely slap the face of the church.

Harvey scoffed. "And then the experiment failed, and it caused a huge mess?"

"No, the Union's attitude is even more arrogant than the Vatican's... They directly rejected His Majesty the Grand Duke's proposal and request, believing that magic and alchemy, used to pursue the ultimate truth, should not be used to serve the desires of secular aristocrats... Bloodline ability, like spellcasting talent, is determined from birth. If you have it, you have it, and if you don't, you don't..."

This is a classic example of the Union's conservative outlook, believing that spellcasting talent stems from inherited bloodline. This group, like Arsdalen's family, pursues pure wizard bloodlines, believing this will ensure that future generations possess exceptional spellcasting talent. "With neither the Union nor the Church willing to intervene, the Grand Duke can only rely on you, the court mages and alchemists, right?"

McKinney and Collins nodded helplessly. "The Federation's attitude has completely angered His Majesty, causing him to completely lose trust in us spellcasters... In fact, we have no idea where he found a mysterious independent mage to conduct the bloodline awakening experiment under his guidance."

The final result was naturally obvious - the failure of the experiment not only caused the Grand Duke himself to fall into a coma and be on the verge of death, but the personal guards who participated in the experiment were also unknowingly infected with the plague caused by the magical mutation.

The Church saw a golden opportunity to use this to undermine the Federation's reputation. They could have used divine magic to quickly curb the spread of the plague, but they chose to add fuel to the flames... allowing the plague to spread rapidly among the people of the royal capital.

Harvey sighed deeply. He chose to believe that this truth, which was a mixture of all kinds of outrageousness and coincidences, had a certain credibility - these two court wizards who had luckily escaped the disaster during the Great Purge had no need to show up at this juncture just to deceive him, an outsider who was about to take power.

After all, he had no interest in the throne of Grand Duke Saint Valen.

As for why Grand Duke Saint Valen was so obsessed with awakening his bloodline... and how that long-vanished independent wizard tempted the ruler of a principality to take such a risk and try such a dangerous and uncertain alchemical magic experiment... there is probably no final answer to the mysteries involved.

The necromancer did have the means to briefly revive the dead and allow them to speak, but the body of Grand Duke Saint Valen was clearly in a state of chronic death and decay due to damage to his soul, so even the head of the Federation would be of no use.

The problem must be with that independent spellcaster!
A thought flashed through Harvey's mind, and he began to consider why the other party was secretly leading all this. The purpose was of course obvious - he had indeed successfully created disputes between the Federation and the Church, and caused large and small riots to break out in the countries in the central part of the southern border.

Perhaps you could try looking for answers in the spellcaster forums, and see if you can get any information about this person from those well-connected and knowledgeable members.

Thinking of this, Harvey frowned slightly and said to the two court mages, "Although the cause of this incident has nothing to do with you, because of your noble status, you chose to conceal this matter and did not make it public. In the end, it affected and persecuted not only the spellcasters of the Federation, but also a large number of ordinary spellcasters and alchemists in the Principality..."

Harvey's voice became increasingly harsh, and the implication was self-evident - when the instigator had escaped and could not be directly held accountable, the church's instigation and the connivance of these noble mages were naturally to blame.

McKinney and Collins looked at each other with bitter faces again. In fact, they couldn't run away even if they wanted to. The relationship between this Northern Lord and the Federation was well known to everyone. After completely controlling the domestic situation in Saint Valen... he would naturally assist the Federation's forces to make a comeback, and at that time he would definitely restart the investigation into the plague incident.

Spellcasters like them who come from powerful families cannot escape subsequent accountability at all. It is better to strike while the iron is hot and ask to see Harvey first to tell him the truth.

After all, if you confess, there may be a chance to seek pardon for yourself.

(End of this chapter)