A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 612 Diagnosis and Treatment of Illnesses

The train wheels clanged against the rails.

"How is it?" asked Master Humboldt, who had just entered.

Rorschach reached out and pressed his hand on Richard's forehead: "There are signs of a breakdown." He glanced at the anxious Lips and added hastily, "But overall, he's not in any serious condition."

The sergeants and guards who rushed over upon hearing the noise suddenly opened the door. Their eyes momentarily lost focus, and then, feeling dizzy, they retreated and closed the carriage door.

Libs finally realized a crucial problem: "You're casting a spell! This is within the Empire's magic-forbidden zone!"

"The reason behind it is simple, but are you sure you want to hear it?" Rorschach said sternly.

Libs hesitated for a moment, then thought of giving up, but still mustered her courage: "I need to know, just as I need to understand why Richard fainted and why the two of you were able to arrive so quickly after he lost consciousness."

Rorschach and Humboldt exchanged a glance and decided to tell the girl the truth.

First, the anti-magic devices that the Empire had deployed on a large scale have been largely replaced with "dual-mode" versions—which can simply interfere with and distort magic power, just like the old machines, and can also create large areas of dead magic zones when grouped together.

However, it can also switch to "weaver" mode, which polarizes the frequency of magic power. In this mode, mages who know string magic can of course continue casting spells.

Libs exclaimed in disbelief, "Impossible! The Emperor is determined to ban magic! Unless you've bribed everyone in the entire anti-magic agency?"

"How could that be?" Rorschach denied it outright: "We bribed the entire empire."

"Given its current severely weakened industrial strength and economic situation, it would be wishful thinking to rapidly deploy the entire system without external support. We, in turn, provided a small amount of sponsorship to His Majesty Wilhelm II's grand plan. It can be said that in the later stages of the project, everything from the new magic generator to the jammer and weaver was supplied to the Empire by us through Valois's company."

"The maintenance and operation of a large system cannot be separated from external support. So who can provide such resources and technology to support it?"

"So, apart from the earliest machines, all the machines currently operating in the Empire have 'backdoors,' the so-called Dead Magic Zones, which can be transformed into areas covered by a special magic network at any time. As long as one is allowed and has mastered special spellcasting techniques, one can 'go online.'"

"How could His Majesty allow that?"

"He had no choice, nor did he need to choose," Humboldt continued. "No matter how the system operates, it can disable traditional spellcasting methods and suppress the activities of deities such as the Earth Mother, which is enough for the emperor."

"And the new spellcasting method is currently only in the hands of a small number of guild members. Miss Kroc, do you think the Emperor is more threatened by the magic guilds that have coexisted peacefully with the Empire for hundreds of years, or by your Imperial spellcasters?"

"Of course," Libs recalled the night William II ascended the throne. Neither side was the Magic Guild, but she swallowed her answer.

"Therefore, under the pretext of guarding the frontier, the emperor concentrated the imperial spellcasters in the border duchies and the central regions, which were heavily polluted by the Mother Goddess. This was also a way for the emperor to get rid of the 'legacy of his predecessors.' After all, the chief mage who was loyal to the royal family had passed away even earlier than the previous emperor, and most of the remaining mages had become unstable factors."

"Richard is the new chief, the Imperial chief mage he can trust. He is also a border count and a 'warden,' suppressing the Imperial spellcasters who followed him to the North, and cultivating a new generation of talents within his territory who can serve the Emperor, whether spellcasters or engineers who have mastered new technologies," Humboldt finished his analysis.

Rorschach added in conclusion: "This is the Senate's analysis of William's mindset and behavior. Although we haven't communicated directly with him, fortunately, His Majesty has matured considerably since taking office, and understands compromise and tacit understanding, making our interactions with him much easier."

"In return, we will not proactively and on a large scale leak the new spellcasting system to the original group of Imperial spellcasters. They will continue to fight the Mother Goddess's servants in the traditional way, while a new group of people, regardless of whether they have magical talent, will receive our training and become an aid in building the territory."

"This is also part of the tacit understanding."

Libs' eyes widened. Although she had witnessed some of the so-called "behind-the-scenes" things in the Grand Duke's mansion, she was still shocked by the two archmages. Their tone was extremely calm, as if they were talking about the weather, discussing the imperial monarch, dissecting his behavior, and rewriting the empire's plans according to their will and doing so, as evidenced by their effortless spellcasting.

What shocked her even more was what happened next regarding Richard.

After chatting for so long, Richard gradually became more active. This was because the area the train was traveling through was covered by a magic network, unlike the capital city which was completely "dried up".

He opened his eyes and saw the girl beside him, then his friend, and felt Rorschach's hand on his forehead. Rorschach had already finished checking Richard's condition. He had stayed in the capital for too long; it was a completely, untouched magic-free zone, while the train had entered an area covered by a magic network.

His lingering in the Dead Magic Zone left his unique body in a state of emptiness. While he wouldn't die instantly, he would gradually weaken. However, his sudden entry into the edge of the magic network caused polarized magic to disperse at the boundary between the two areas due to the limitations of the machine. Richard wasn't in a good enough state to cope with the impact of the environmental change when he entered the zone. His non-native magic circuits were disrupted, and gaps and cracks appeared between his already separate soul and its vessel.

Now, Rorschach used his magic control techniques to harmonize the abnormal circuits within his body. In addition, the train had entered a stable area of ​​the magic network, and his soul had reconnected, so he naturally began to awaken.

However, he still felt extremely sleepy and had to force himself to stay awake.

"I'm fine. Based on my experience, as long as Rorschach arrives, I'll be alright." Richard smiled and told Libs not to worry, seeing her worried expression.

Rorschach disagreed with Richard's statement: "To be precise, it's always me who gets there when something happens to you, and then I cover for you. Are you going to tell her what happened to you?"

"I'm so sleepy that my brain isn't working properly and I can't organize my thoughts, so please tell Libs what's going on. Don't hold back."

"Okay." Rorschach recounted in detail how he had blown up his friend and then resurrected him. Libs asked in a trembling voice, "Is Richard still him?"

"It is absolutely certain that his soul has never been changed; it remains kind and upright."

Hearing Rorschach praising himself so earnestly in front of Libus, Richard wanted to be modest, but his mischievous friend's next words were: "As for the body, he only lost his genetic functions, but his other abilities are excellent, even better than the original—the body I sculpted is close to perfect in multiple dimensions."

(End of this chapter)