A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 395 Number One Traitor

The guard's shouts attracted the attention of his colleagues. At that moment, the captain of the guard suddenly lunged forward, wanting to stab the meddlesome scoundrel through with his sword. However, a lasso suddenly appeared around his neck, and the two men beside him pulled him back, tightening the noose like a bull, and bringing the poor captain of the guard down in one fell swoop.

"Cough cough. You know cough." The chief guard still wanted to say something harsh and struggle, but the lasso tightened more and more. He tried to cut the rope with his sword, but as he fell to the ground, a pitchfork stabbed into his sword-wielding hand.

If he hadn't been wearing chainmail underneath, this former top imperial guard and swordsman would have died from being beaten by farm tools.

Having lost their guards, the royal family utterly lost hope. Charles XVI could only manage to maintain his composure: "I am the king! Summon the nobles of this land to see me!"

The guard brandished a pitchfork: "Sir, the nobles here have already fled!"

"Then call the person in charge to see me!"

However, his bad luck struck again that day. The peasant-like mayor was a supporter of the "Mountain Faction." When he was woken up in the middle of the night with a dark face, he was first taken aback when he saw the king "visiting" his territory. Then his face darkened even more.

The king's dramatic capture after fleeing the country left the people of the Holy Kingdom both amused and furious. His disastrous escape, which he managed to do so poorly, definitively confirmed who the kingdom's greatest traitor was.

Initially, the guards who had subdued the king's family and the chief of guards reported this to the town hall. The mayor, having confirmed the information, rushed to the town in the dead of night. Historians record it as follows:

A tall, burly man approached the city gate and shouted, "Are there any reliable patriots here? Something dire has happened!"

Just when everyone thought the Imperial army had attacked, the man dropped a bombshell: "The royal family is in town; they're disguised and trying to escape!"

Immediately, the city guards, armed with guns and swords, poured into the town, and many people watched with the fascination of seeing what the royal family looked like. The first discoverer proudly held up the gold coin, demonstrating to everyone how advanced the kingdom's coin design and minting techniques had been in the past.

The reinforcements from the city guards were necessary, as the cavalry originally escorting the king quickly arrived from the camp, leading to a tense standoff. Finally, both sides agreed to escort His Majesty back to his loyal Valuana palace. The telegraph system was sleepless that night, with news spreading explosively.

By the time the sun rose the next day, even the fish in the bustling market knew that the enemy was in the royal palace!

The king and his family, utterly despondent, were escorted back to the palace gates, where the military police slammed the iron gates shut.

The National Assembly established the National Salvation Committee, which was granted almost all powers during the war. The first time the committee members wielded this "imperial sword" was to strike at the royal palace.

Bang! The commissioner violently kicked open the expensive door, ransacked the furniture that the servants had carefully cleaned and arranged, and took away His Majesty the King's antique safe.

"This box is three hundred years old!"

"Then you shouldn't use it to store anything anymore." The lock, which was over three hundred years old, was not so reliable. The investigator easily broke it open and took out various letters, most of which bore ancient family crests, revealing a vast network of old rulers that covered the continent of Floren.

Now they were all packed into bags and taken away, along with the chief guard, who looked like a tattered sack. The soldiers, disregarding the wounds on his arms from the pitchforks, tightly gripped him and dragged this devoted and loyal minister out of the palace.

Leaving aside the correspondence between Charles XVI and foreign nobles, the committee's current announcement states that everything was planned and instigated by the chief of guards.

The square where once luxurious six-wheeled carriages were transported now stands as a tall guillotine. Crowds thronged the square and its surroundings, and amidst their shouts and curses, the chief guard was pressed onto it, listening to the executioner proclaim his crimes.

"Traitor, utter criminal! Do you have anything else to say?"

The chief guard looked at the enraged crowd, all of whom were unfamiliar faces. He suddenly realized that these people were probably meeting him for the first time, but now they all harbored a deep hatred for him and wanted him dead.

He felt as if he were back at the day he went to the Royal Theatre to watch a play, where he saw many nouveau riche and wealthy people, and he remembered the people who had toasted and fraternized with him during his heyday.

Now, some of them sit on the high platform, deciding the fate of the chief guard, while others remain hidden behind the scenes, their whereabouts unknown. But none of them are here; the square is filled with strangers who had no connection to him, yet are filled with intense anger.

"Impressive, truly impressive." The chief guard sighed sincerely at those who had led him to the guillotine.

"If you dare to judge and execute me today, and execute the chief of the palace guards, you dare to send the king to the guillotine tomorrow!"

The executioner grinned triumphantly: "If Charles XVI truly committed treason, then we will put him on trial. Before the law and the interests of the nation, everyone is equal!"

"After I die, it will be His Majesty's turn, and after the King dies, it will be your turn one day. Sooner or later, the people behind you and the people above you will all have to go through this." The captain of the guard cursed almost like a roar.

Swah——

The cursing and swearing ceased. Amidst the splatter of blood, the onlookers were first shocked and silent, then erupted into frenzied cheers.

In a newly opened restaurant in Lanster, a rising first-tier city in the Kingdom of Bain.

"So Charles XVI's escape attempt failed, he was captured by a group of farmers, and became a laughing stock in the international community." Rorschach put away his newspaper because lunch had arrived.

Caroline was already used to Rorschach suddenly spouting new terms like "international society" in Istani, and she patiently sliced ​​off the skin from the crispy pork knuckle:

"I heard about it on the road yesterday, from the driver. These days, ordinary people can find out any news immediately."

"Because newspaper reporters chased after hot topics like hunting dogs, afraid of being a step behind their colleagues. Another very important factor was that the telegraph made it possible for news to spread faster than people could walk."

Previously, only magic guilds and churches possessed special, fast communication channels. The cost of maintaining communication arrays for guilds was high, but the profits earned solely from information asymmetry were even more terrifying.

Caroline then remembered that the birth of the "telegraph" seemed to be related to this young man in front of her, and she reminded him, "The Empire should have obtained telegraph technology by now."

Rorschach nodded: "That's right. Now that they've occupied the northern part of the Holy Kingdom, they'll eventually get the wreckage or find the operators. No matter how tightly Valuwa guards it or how much Byrne keeps the so-called secret, they can't completely stop the spread of the technology." He shrugged: "But that's a good thing. Sooner or later, everyone will be able to enjoy the convenience brought by the advancement of communication."

"You're so magnanimous. If everyone in the academy were like you, I wouldn't have been so angry that I resigned." Caroline wanted to roll her eyes, but she held back for the sake of her public image.

If everyone acted like me, wouldn't the college be in chaos?

After finishing her meal, Caroline put down her cutlery, wiped her mouth, and said excitedly, "Alright, go and show me your mage tower. You're the first of my students to build a tower on your own."

"Hmm, how about we visit the factories first? Each one is like my child." Luo Xia blurted out, then realized it sounded strange, like a single young man showing off his children to his teacher.

(End of this chapter)