Legend of the arch magus

The next day, thousands of monster corpses were hauled and moved towards the warehouse of the Merchants Guild. Despite some protests, the officials of the city refused to burn the bodies. After all, as part of the deal, Lark now had full monopoly over the dead bodies. Chryselle watched with dazed eyes as numerous men worked together to clear the walls and the roads of the monsters' remains. She could still vividly remember it – that time when the monsters suddenly climbed over the walls and attacked the soldiers. Even in the library of Wizzert City, she had never read anything about these monsters – abominations resembling a gorilla and a frog. As I thought… it must be him.

Wearing a hooded cloak, Chryselle looked at Lark from afar. Currently, the young man was giving out orders left and right. Back in the Capital, Chryselle did not act rashly despite her speculations that Lark was the perpetrator behind the attack on Wizzert City. She simply observed him, since she did not have enough evidence to prove it. But now, after following him and observing him for several weeks, she was sure. Lark Marcus was the one who defeated her brother and the rest of the magicians of Wizzert City – including her. A bead of sweat started forming on Chryselle's forehead as she recalled that dreadful night. That night when a single person boldly attacked the Tower of Wizzert. Gravity Magic.

It was the spell used by Lark during that time. Before that fateful encounter, Chryselle and the magicians of Wizzert never knew that Gravity Magic could be used as an offensive spell. Some of their magicians were capable of using it, but they simply used it to move around goods and cargos. But the spell used by Lark was on an entirely different realm. The spell was so strong that it forcefully crippled their magicians, rendering them unable to cast even a single spell and fight back. This was true even for her brother – the so-called strongest magician of Wizzert. If her brother was not caught in that Grand Scale Magic, she wondered how the fight would have ended. My brother wouldn't lose… Her brother was strong enough to fight two or three Royal Court Magicians at the same time. Surely, he wouldn't lose so one-sidedly. But for some peculiar reason, Chryselle's intuition was telling her otherwise. At the back of her mind, something was telling her that the results would have been the same no matter what. No. Wait. This is not the reason I followed him here.

Chryselle shook her head. Her gaze landed on the two young men next to Lark. The two of them looked identical that it was easy to conclude that they were related by blood. Chryselle came here not to seek revenge, but to know the truth behind the magic circle. When she first lost sight of the brothers at Wizzert, she thought that she would lose the chance to unravel the mystery forever. But after coming into the Capital and seeing Lark and sensing the familiar aura he gave off, she slowly put the pieces of the puzzle together. The reason why an unknown man suddenly attacked the magicians of Wizzert. How those two young men who did not even know any magic got hold of the perfected magic circle. It was not hard to come to a conclusion after personally experiencing all these things. Her speculations were solidified the moment she saw Lark together with the two brothers together in the Capital.

The brothers must have been serving a master. A master benevolent enough to pass to his disciples such precious magic circles. And what would happen if the disciples of such a benevolent master were suddenly attacked without any reason? Carnage. An immediate retaliation. It was easy to see why Lark Marcus waged war with the magicians of Wizzert that night. Those two are so lucky.

Chryselle bit her lips as a pang of jealousy rose within her. She could not help but be jealous of those two for finding such a master. Although Lark was absurdly strong, he was obviously someone reasonable. Just the incident at Wizzert proved this: although several hundreds of magicians were defeated, none of them ended up dead. "You've been staring at the Young Master for quite some time now."

A deep voice rang out behind her. A bit startled, Chryselle reflexively pulled her hood in. She turned around and met the gaze of a handsome man with golden hair. He easily towered almost two meters, and a sword hanged by his waist. Chryselle knew him. Without a doubt, he was one of Lark Marcus' disciples. "Ah, no." Caught off-guard, Chryselle was unable to give a proper response. "I'm just waiting for someone."

She walked past him and disappeared amidst the crowd. Anandra furrowed his brows. He could tell that that she was no ordinary woman. What did she want from the Young Master? "Oi, Senior!" Austen waved at him from afar. Lately, the brothers started calling him names like Grandpa, Senior, Gramps. This was after they were forced to run around the city several times as training. Although he was not that old, Anandra simply let it slide.

There was no harm done, after all. Like they said, rashness is the mark of youth, tolerance is those of adults.

Anandra approached them. After lightly bowing his head to Lark, he turned to the brothers. "Gramps, look at this!" George opened his palm, revealing a silver coin. "I earned this in just a day! Isn't it amazing?!"

Austen pointed at the pile of monster corpses to their left. "George and I helped carry those corpses to the warehouse. The rotting smell of monster flesh sticks to the body, so only a few are willing to do it."

"If it's Gramps, you could probably do the work of five or ten men, right?"

George winked. "It's just a simple task that requires brute force. Just remember to treat your juniors later once you've recei—" "—Not interested," Anandra shot the idea down. "Young Master, I've received a message. The Lord of Lion City wishes to see you. Alone."

Lark's curiosity was piqued by the last statement. He heard a lot of things about the Lord of this City. He already expected that the man would summon him to the castle. After all, there was no doubt of Lark's contribution to this monster wave's victory. What Lark did not expect was that the Lord would wish to meet him alone.

Basically, he's telling me not to involve the Merchants Guild – Big Mona – in this meeting.

"The Lord of Lion City, huh?" Lark smiled. The incompetent Lord who always chooses to hide himself during war wanted to finally meet him. "Hey kids," he tossed two silvers to the brothers. "Stop moving the dead bodies to the warehouse. Let other people handle it."

"Eh? But my silver coins!" George protested. Lark tossed another silver coin to him. Austen quickly caught it. "It's an order from your master. Go back to the inn and wash yourselves. You stink."

"Anandra, go to the Merchants Guild and tell Big Mona that I'll be meeting the Lord of this City. Also remind him to load more iron ingots to the caravan going to Blackstone Town. We'll be going home after this."

A hint of excitement was seen within Anandra's eyes upon hearing the words 'going home'. He must have missed his family so much. More than two months have passed since they left home, after all. "Understood!"

After parting with his disciples, Lark headed to the Lord's Castle located at the Inner District. As the Lord of the City requested, he came alone. After informing the guards of his identity, a butler immediately ushered him inside and led him to a large room meant for receiving distinguished guests.

Inside the room was a large portrait of a dashing man wearing a full plate armor. The man's lips were subtly curled into a smirk, his eyes beaming with uttermost confidence. "I was an active knight back then." A voice was heard near the door. An overweight man with exquisite garb had just entered the room. After seeing Lark staring at the portrait on the wall, the man added, "But no one can resist the passage of time." The man sat down on the couch next to Lark. He gently smiled, "Look at me now, a husk of my former self."

An awkward silence filled the room. The man, after receiving no response from Lark, coughed several times. "Ah, I forgot my manners. I should have first introduced myself."

The man stood up, placed his right hand on his chest, then lightly bowed his head, "Valcres, Lord of Lion City."

Lark also stood up and imitated the polite gesture of the Lord of Lion City.

"Lark Marcus. Lord of Blackstone Town. It's my pleasure to be invited by the Lord of this City."

Unlike Big Mona, Lark did not have much information regarding this man before him. The fat merchant kept telling him that Valcres was nothing but an incompetent ruler, a bastard who refused to leave his position of power, but Lark refused to believe everything the merchant said, as the two were obviously antagonistic of each other. "There's no need to be so stiff," chuckled Valcres. "Please, let us sit down."

Lark had expected him to be crude and overbearing, but the way the man spoke was reminiscent of prudence. The two of them sat down and Valcres lifted the teapot and started pouring tea over Lark's cup. "Thank you." Lark observed the man before him. Despite being overweight, the man exuded elegance.

Valcres sipped his tea. He smiled and placed the cup down. "I heard that you've become business partners with Big Mona."

There was a small pause. "That man must have said a lot of bad things about me, but I hope you'll hear me out at the very least."

Valcres took a stack of parchments and placed them on top of the table, pushing them towards Lark's direction. "I know you're a busy man, so let me get straight to the point. Look at these."

Lark's read the topmost sheet and his eyes lightly shook upon reading it. "An all-out war with the Empire?" Valcres nodded. "That's right."

Lark grabbed the stack of parchments and started reading them one by one. After their city was attacked, the Empire declared an all-out war with the Kingdom of Lukas. Two of their main armies, led by General Alvaren and General Rizel, attacked the City of Yorkshaire, successfully conquering it in merely five days. The unprecedented appearance of the Magic Knight Unit of the Empire proved pivotal in the fall of Yorkshaire City. Lark had not expected things to turn out this way. He thought that after experiencing the might of the mana bombs, the Empire would reconsider attacking the Kingdom. But on the contrary, this single move backfired.

Instead of a peace treaty, the Empire declared an all-out war. After Yorkshaire City was captured, Lui Marcus and Sword Master Alexander attacked the Empire's soldiers with hopes of taking the fortress back, but sieging the fortress proved impossible with the Magic Knights protecting the entrances. Several smaller armies from the Empire came as reinforcement and Lui Marcus and the Sword Saint had no choice but to retreat with their men. During their retreat, the remnants of the Yorkshaire Army were ambushed by the army of General Rizel. By estimate, only a fifth of the Yorkshaire Army survived the battle. "Lui Marcus and the Sword Saint… lost?" "That's right. Your brother lost the war," Valcres sighed. "That newspaper is something available only to the High Nobility. Even Barons will have a hard time getting their hands on that. But the result of war is inevitable. The news will soon spread far and wide. The so-called undefeated War God of the Western Front lost the battle. And now, the Empire is slowly invading the adjacent cities of Yorkshaire."

Lark did not know how strong his older brother was, but for him to be called the God of War of the Western Front, his abilities must have been extraordinary. Still, he found it hard to believe that the Sword Saint lost the battle. He had seen how that man fought the retreating beastmen before, using the vision crystal. The swordsmanship of Alexander was akin to being one with the sword. "How many soldiers did the Empire bring this time?"

Last time, around twenty thousand soldiers tried to capture Yorkshaire City, but they failed. "Fifty thousand soldiers, not including the soldiers from the smaller armies.

By estimate, there's probably sixty thousand of them occupying the Yorkshaire City and the Mountain Range right now. And it will only continue to increase even further."

Lark understood what Valcres meant. Yorkshaire City was literally the stopper blocking the advance of the Empire. Now that it was captured, the Empire now had a free pass towards the Kingdom. "Sixty thousand, huh." Lark furrowed his brows. He could somehow understand how Lui Marcus and the Sword Saint lost. They were outnumbered by almost six times their number.

It seemed that the Empire was really serious about waging an all-out war with the Kingdom. The land of the Empire was vast, and bringing this much army to topple the Kingdom would mean that their defenses in the other areas would be thinned out. "The reason I called you here – look at the fourth page of the article."

Lark flipped at that page. His eyes momentarily widened upon reading it. According to it, it seemed that a rumor with him at the center was starting to spread among the masses. Although the news regarding the defeat of Lui Marcus and the Sword Saint had not spread far and wide yet, the news about the Empire's declaration of an all-out war was known to many.

According to the rumor, the reason why the Empire became so enraged and declared this war was because of Lark Marcus. The young noble was the one who proposed to directly attack the nearest city of the Empire, and this, in turn, earned the ire of the Empire. "It's just rumors, and I don't believe you're influential enough to propose such an attack, but you better steel yourself. These rumors will soon spread through these lands. And once the people learned of the War God's defeat, the people would have no choice but to resent you – the root of all these things."

Lark placed the news article back on the table. He remained stoic despite these revelations. "They're not baseless rumors. It's true. I'm the one who proposed the attack."

Valcres' opened then closed his mouth. "W-What?"

"I was too naïve, huh? I can't believe I gave the Empire the perfect reason to finally declare an all-out war with us."

A grin started forming on Lark's lips. He was not afraid. They could all come and attack him if they wanted. He had experienced far more dangerous things than this back in his previous life, after all. Waging war with a tribe of Dragons or waging war with the Empire? The two were basically just the same. "So, you called me here to warn me?" The previously stoic expression of Lark was now replaced with a mischievous grin. Seeing this, Valcres could not help but calculate his next steps. He certainly did not expect Lark to react this way. Valcres shook his head. "No. I'm here to tell you to stay."

He grabbed the fourth page of the article and pointed at the left corner.

"This thing written here. It's a decree from the Royal Family. Nobles – Counts and those above in rank – are required to participate in the war. And by participate, they are required to send at least a thousand soldiers to aid the Kingdom in repelling the invaders."

A thousand soldiers? Lark did not even have half the amount. "Those that are unable to comply are required to personally come to the battlefield and oversee the army. That is the Royal Decree."

It was a fair decree. As the rulers of their lands, it's only natural for the nobles to come and fight for their territories once the time comes. With this decree, the Anti-Royal Faction and even the fence-sitters would have no choice but to participate. The only problem was with nobles like Lark who held a high status but without a proper army to back it up. Nobles like him would have no choice but to come to the front lines and personally oversee the Kingdom's army. "I haven't even returned to Blackstone Town yet," he smirked. "Not necessarily," Valcres grinned broadly. "I'll lend you a thousand of this City's soldiers. You wouldn't have to go. But in exchange, you will stay here and build more towers for the City. How's that sound to you?"

Valcres' voice sounded more enthusiastic than usual, as though he struck a pot of gold. Lark looked at Valcres and his still broadly smiling face. He finally realized the goal of this man before him. At first, he thought that the evaluation of Big Mona was wrong. That the Lord of Lion City was nothing like the rumors. But now, Lark realized that the merchant was actually speaking the truth. This man maybe not be totally incompetent, but he was surely a coward. He was probably still afraid of those monsters from the Lake. If Lark left for the front lines, who would manage the towers? This was probably the thoughts running through the Lord's mind right now.

Big Mona's speaking the truth, huh?

Lark quickly hid his thoughts. He smiled, "That sounds like a tempting idea —" Valcres nodded, "—That's right! As long as we accomplish the have the amount of soldiers sent to the front lines, there'll be no need for you to come! Of course, we'll have to wai—" "—But I humbly decline." Lark stood up, placed his hand on his chest and bowed. "This visit has been worthwhile. But I have somewhere else I have to visit after this, please excuse me."

Lark bent down and grabbed the news articles. "Ah, and can I have these?"

he shamelessly asked.

Valcres stared at the parchments, then at Lark. "You can, I no longer need them. But can you tell me the reason first? I don't see any merit in you to refusing my offer."

Valcres sounded agitated, and was starting to overlap with the incompetent image Big Mona always bespoke of him. Lark paused, looked up at the ceiling as though it held the answer, then smiled at Valcres. He shrugged, "It's not enticing enough, I guess?"

Valcres gnashed his teeth at that answer. His smiling façade completely slid down his face. "You do understand, right? That if you refuse this offer, you'll be sent to the front lines."

"I do. And it's not like there's a fixed time limit to this. You said that the news of the War God's defeat hasn't spread through the entire Kingdom yet.

Then I should have a month or two at most before I'm forcefully summoned. My soldiers should be ready by then."

Valcres scoffed, "Your soldiers will be ready by then?"

Lark simply smiled and did not retort. A month or two should be enough to prepare those soldiers. If the Empire has their Magic Knight Unit… Then what should I call them?

The Iron Knight Unit?

A horrible naming sense. Lark decided to think about the name later. It was true that Lark was the one who sparked this all-out war with the Empire. As such, he did not wish to simply sit back and watch from the sidelines. Once he had finished creating his soldiers, he decided to march towards the frontlines.