Mage? Magic Engineer!

Was Richard acting on a whim?

Yes and no. After witnessing the uprising, he wasn’t just ’standing there dumbly’ as Libus thought. He was pondering several questions.

He was a military officer, a noble, and a Caster. But it was precisely this triple identity that allowed him to view the situation beyond the limitations of any single role.

He was well aware that the Empire Army was not as pure and flawless as those retired officers believed. Nor would turning the entire Empire into one big military camp solve society’s current problems.

’What would happen if these people succeeded?’

The Empire Council and the civil servant system, led by the Prime Minister, would be suppressed by the Empire Army. The war effort might indeed become more effective afterward, but it would bring no happiness to the Empire’s common people.

Richard knew how the lesser nobles treated their serfs. Once it was time to divide the spoils, the countless soldiers would turn the Southern Empire and the former Valois-occupied territories into places just like West Marlin, rife with slave labor and a crude manorial economy.

And the entire Empire would lose the ability to stop the war. In fact, that was already the case. The Prime Minister’s reforms were an attempt to restore the mechanism for proactively declaring a truce.

’No, that scenario seems to be overestimating these officers. They can’t even propose a decent blueprint. They merely believe the Emperor has been deceived and that villains are in power.’

Their solution was physical elimination.

So, he had to stop them. This was a responsibility bestowed upon him by all three of his identities.

As a soldier, as a noble, and as a citizen of the Empire, he had to oppose this tide of madness. He had already thought it through: these disillusioned and disgruntled soldiers would not bring a better future to the Empire.

The Crown Prince would have his own guards when traveling, and the Imperial Capital’s military police should already be on the move. They could easily be distinguished from the rebellious Empire Soldiers involved in the operation. After all, their pay wasn’t even in the same league.

What Richard truly worried about was the involvement of Casters—specifically, the Military Mages who used to serve under his former teacher, the Necromancer Master.

’Like the Caster he had just killed, what would these members—now without the Necromancer Master’s leadership and with ideologies even more extreme than the retired officers’—be capable of?’

The Crown Prince, a key figure in the Empire, had to be prevented from being taken hostage by these people. And this was the only critical juncture where Richard could intervene.

The first thing Richard did after making his decision was to stop the fight. He didn’t care who was friend or foe, casting "Vomit Till You Drop" on several people around him.

Fortunately, his understanding of Spell Chains wasn’t thorough enough, so the spell’s power didn’t reach its full potential. However, it was still enough to make its targets start violently spewing filth.

Since many of them had been drinking, the room’s stench instantly became overpoweringly acrid. In such an atmosphere, vomiting was contagious, and all the drunkards were club members.

As a result, not only did the brawl stop, but it also conveniently allowed most of Hench’s friends to gain the upper hand.

"Hench, do you know where the Marshal’s Mansion is?"

"He’s had me over to his home."

"Good. Go with the others and find him now. Report this emergency. I’m going to find the Crown Prince. As for you, Libus..."

"I’m in danger no matter where I am, but relatively speaking, I’m safest by your side." If it were any other noble girl, she would have acted shy saying such a thing, but Libus boldly quoted a line from *The Overbearing Mage Falls in Love with Me*.

Fortunately, Libus quickly added, "Do you believe in my prophetic abilities now? I can help you find the Crown Prince."

Hench, thinking of something, took a medal from his coat. "His Highness awarded this to me personally. It might help you prove your identity."

Two horses galloped through the Imperial Capital, which was shrouded in an ominous night. Libus’s eyes were so bright they seemed to glow as she led Richard, successfully navigating around the marching troops.

Some military police had already reacted and begun to deploy, with some confronting the rebellious Empire Soldiers in the streets.

Amidst the darkness and frayed nerves, no one knew who fired the first shot. It might not have even been a gunshot. But once the first was fired, an exchange of fire followed, the muzzle flashes illuminating the determined faces of the insurgents.

They tried to shout and persuade the military police to join them, but unfortunately, the military police even brought out a field cannon.

However, another group of rebel soldiers achieved a victory: the Empire’s den of iniquity was set ablaze. Grand as it was, it belonged to the corrupt, the insider traders, the parasites holding back the war effort. So, to the soldiers of the uprising, its loss was no great pity.

’The Ministry of War and the High Command are enough.’

As the two rode on, they saw the Empire Parliament Building engulfed in a raging fire between the city’s buildings.

"Oh, heavens..." Before Libus could finish her exclamation, they were spotted by the military police.

The military police were clearly unaware of their intentions. They shouted a warning, then took aim, ready to pull the trigger at any moment.

"Hold on tight!" Richard made a split-second decision, daringly closing in on Libus. Just as their horses were about to collide, he grabbed her, lifted her up, and used a [Mage’s Hand] to help settle her onto the saddle behind him.

He had to do this because his Casting Ability hadn’t fully recovered. Even with the aid of the Spell Cloud, the Shield he could deploy wouldn’t be able to protect both horses.

Soon, gunfire erupted. Libus’s original mount shrieked, tumbled, and collapsed, while the two of them broke through the blockade under a hail of bullets.

"Damn, that was your family’s horse. It wasn’t too expensive, was it?"

Richard was in no mood for banter. The recent exchange had proven one thing: the military police had no way to stop a surprise attack from a Mage.

’Perhaps there’s a Mage with the Crown Prince. Let’s hope they can keep him safe.’

"You don’t know Teleportation Magic?"

"Wow, Richard, you smell so good... The base note is cedar and musk mixed with sweat... It’s a shame it was ruined by the vomit from those drunkards in the room."

The experience of it being ruined by vomit seemed to annoy her.

"I think my mother is a very good judge of character sometimes."

"What?"

"She praised you for being brave and fearless, unbound by common sense and worldly conventions."

"That doesn’t sound like a compliment..."

With Libus’s miraculous navigation, the two quickly approached the Imperial Capital’s west gate, which was named after Saint Kray, the Guardian of the North of the Old Empire.

The gate was heavily guarded by military police. In theory, they should be able to escort the Crown Prince safely into the Imperial Palace.

But as Richard and Libus approached on their single horse, the area around the city gate had already descended into chaos. The attackers had chosen the perfect moment, launching a disturbance just as the convoy was passing through the gate, trapping it in a dilemma.

The Crown Prince’s carriage should be somewhere within the convoy. At this moment, neither military police reinforcements nor the participating Empire Soldiers had arrived. All that could be seen was the glimmer of Magic flashing in the night.

Just as he’d suspected, the attackers were all Mages, and so were some of the defenders. Their battle was fought in a way that avoided the carriages as much as possible, but they showed no regard for the military police, scattering the guard formations.

"We can’t ride any further." Richard dismounted, gritting his teeth as he raised a Shield again. He looked at the chaotic, halted convoy. "Where is His Highness?"

That was the same question plaguing the attackers.

Libus unfastened her riding boots and, from a Storage Bag in an unmentionable location, pulled out... a pair of straw sandals and put them on.

Richard didn’t understand, but the moment Libus put on the straw sandals, her entire demeanor changed. Her eyes, once just bright, now seemed to contain an endless, swirling stream of light.

"Found him." She pointed to a plainly decorated carriage in the entourage.

"Is there no limit to your prophecies?" He felt that one moment Libus could only see a vague glimpse of fate, and the next she was predicting things with godlike accuracy.

"According to my ancestors’ records, starting the day after I wear these straw sandals, I must keep my eyes closed for two ten-day periods, or I’ll go permanently blind."

"And I haven’t finished my new novel yet, so I’ll need a handsome guy to read it to me... Hey, wait for me!"

Richard had already charged off at the critical moment. Gritting her teeth, Libus ran after him, her feet hurting in the prickly straw sandals, toward the heart of the battle.