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Volume 7 Chapter 1 Part 3

Radovan said in a deliberately light tone.

「That’s right… 」

Theo’s own Crest shone on the back of his right hand, and he looked down at it.

「It seems like it’s something that you can’t show to the residents of Sistina or the other Lords. 」

「At least not until the right time comes. 」

Radovan smiled, and Theo nodded silently.

「Please entrust your title to me. 」

「If you’re fine with having me and my loyalty… 」

Radovan bowed to Theo deeply.

「I was always called an honest man, but that is because I had no choice but to be like that, not because I wanted. However, when you attacked my city, Perseta, I betrayed the Factory Alliance and surrendered to you because I wanted to. I knew that if I fought against you, me and my people would only die in vain. 」

That was not what the people of Radovan’s territory wanted. They didn’t like such an ending to themselves and their Lord. The city of Perseta is an old city-state whose residents are fiercely independent. When they learned that during the time of Jurgen Kraische’s invasion Radovan’s father chose to immediately subordinate the city to him without even trying to fight back, they were so angry at his cowardice that they forced him to become exiled into the countryside of the city without the option to come back.

Because that action as against the peerage system, Radovan himself was allowed to return to the city and rule it in his father’s place, but the truth of the matter is that he was a Lord in name only.
「Lord Theo, at that time, if you hadn’t persuaded the people of my territory and convinced me to surrender, I probably wouldn’t be alive to speak with you like that today. 」

「To me, the most important thing is that no one got hurt in the end. 」

Theo said quietly. He realized that it was a shame that so much blood had been spilled to overthrow the Rossini family. Siluca knew that all these sacrifices probably weighted heavily on Theo’s mind, because that is just the kind of person that he was.

「After that battle, I was able to take advantage of your fame. Because of you, the residents of my city recognized me as their Lord who stood out for them, and some even see me as the best leader for the entirety of Falvis. Which is why, if I didn’t offer myself to you as your subordinate Lord, that would be nothing short of unfaithful towards you, so please, allow me to offer my Crest to you. 」

「thank you. I accept it with gratitude. 」

Theo then came across the table to shake Radovan’s hand.

「Please leave Sistina to me. With me taking care of it, there will be nothing stopping you from running wild on the continent against Milza to your heart’s content. 」

* * *

Ten days later, Theo and Siluca have found themselves in Elam, the largest city on the continent.

The envoy of the Mages Association finally arrived, and they handed Yana, the Black Witch who had been kept in the dungeon beneath the mansion of the Rossini family over to him, after which they accompanied the envoy back to Elam.

Siruca was acquainted with the members of the Inquiry Committee. That is because she was the first to notice the abnormalities during the wedding of Alexis Ducet and Marine Kraische on the day that would later be known as 「The Tragedy of the Grand Cathedral」and took action to quell the Chaos whose density began to rise rapidly, and was later called upon several times for the purpose of the follow-up investigation organized by the Mages Association.

「Have you heard anything from the Black Witch? 」

While on the ship, Siluca was interviewed by the head of the Inquiry Committee.

「I’m sure everyone will find out about that in the upcoming investigation. Then you’ll hear all that I heard from her. 」

Siluca answered as such. Inquiry Committee will have to eventually publish its final report on the investigation, so Siluca showed that she had no intention of objecting to that.

「That’s fine. 」

The chairman was nodding with satisfaction.

「I heard that your talent is being talked about in the Sages Committee, so you u may be able to return to the Association someday. After all, being able to act when it matters the most despite the circumstances around you is a rare and much needed talent, especially nowadays. 」

The chairman hit the nail on the head. He then offered Siluca the opportunity to hold a key position in the Association.

For a Mage, it is the highest honor possible to be selected as a member of the Sages Committee, the decision-making body of the entire Mages Association. If a Mage gets appointed as a member of the Sages Committee, the power and prestige of the family that a Mage hails from would skyrocket exponentially.

Of course, Siluca wanted to stay at the Magic University and get a job as a researcher there, so she had no interest in joining the Association, not to mention that now that she was acting as Theo’s contracted Mage and she wanted to help him see his dreams through to the end, she didn’t even have the time to be thinking about pursuing a career in the Mages Association.
「 In any case, thank you very much for your generous offer. I will give it some thought.」

However, she decided to answer that to the chairman in the end.

To be honest, there was nothing good about that offer right now. Unlike when she was a child when she was almost singled out of the Magic Academy she now has much more wisdom and knowledge about how the Mages Association and its Mages were operating.

Since she didn’t know how long she would stay in Elam, she rented a mansion in a place not far from the Mages Association headquarters.

All of the powerful Lords, whether they belong to the Factory Alliance or the Fantasia Union, have at least one of their villas located in Elam. These villas are the places where the Lords are sending their children whenever they go study in Elam, and contracted Mages and Shadows are stationed in them at all times to carry out diplomatic tasks and to conduct intelligence gathering.

Now that Theo has become an Earl and intended to become a leader of the Artuk Treaty, he should also have a villa in Elam that would serve as his base of operations in the city. In fact, Siluca had already decided who’d be a Diplomatic Mage stationed in his villa: a Mage by the name of Sefaud Latkins.

He originally had a contract with the Ducet family, the leaders of the Fantasia Union, and was in charge of diplomacy with the Factory Alliance. He is also the one who was working behind the scenes to make the marriage between Alexis and Marine possible, while everyone else around him thought that making it happen was impossible.

After that fateful Lords Conference in Halusia, which Theo and Siluca also attended, he was put in charge of peace negotiations with the Factory Alliance, but things didn’t go as planned and all of his carefully laid plans fell to ruin in the end.

After the death of Vilar Constance, the Earl of Artuk, he went through a nervous breakdown during which he accused the Lords of the Fantasia Union of being responsible for his death and he even tried to kill them, but he was ultimately stopped by the Head Maid of the Ducet family.

However, rather than punish Sefaud, Alexis apologized and secretly gave him a generous reward for his hard work, with which he then returned to Elam. She learned this information from Alexis’s new contracted Mage, and Siluca then contacted Sefaud, who was greatly surprised to hear from her. She didn’t think he’d accept her offer at first,

but when she told him that Theo was going to make peace between the Factory Alliance and the Fantasia Union and that he was going to make Alexis and Marine finally get married, his attitude drastically improved. After all, these projects were both large-scale projects in which Sefaud was directly involved, so Siluca guessed that he just couldn’t remain indifferent to them.

After choosing a room and carrying her luggage there, Siluca changed into her Magic University uniform for the first time in a while.

Since she came to Elam, there are many things she needs to do and things she wants to do.

「Lord Theo, please take your time. 」

After getting ready to go out, Siluca called out to Theo. She doesn’t have much to do with Theo until she is summoned by the Magicians’ Association, so both of them had some free time on their hands.