บท 15: Wilfrid 2

Brandon was taken aback, shrunk back a little to his seat, and slowly lowered his head.

It was by no surprise that an arrogant individual like him took a massive step back just a glare from his elder brother, possessing the power to step on his ego.

After all, his elder brother has the power to even humiliate him.

Sometimes, with his puny brain – the insults that his elder brother loved to spit on him – he tended to forget avoiding mentioning the name of his elder brother.

His elder brother was sensitive to that, for his ego was way more massive than his.

Regardless, he doesn't have the power to retort to his elder brother, so he could only meekly reply, "I apologized, elder brother."

"You seem to forget the perfect honorific to address me, little brother." He smiled.

Despite his facial structure from his smile appearing kind and bright, it was no doubt the most terrifying from his eyes alone.

Brandon didn't even need to see it as he could perceive it.

He nodded slowly and replied in a low voice, "Yes, crown prince."

"Louder!" A soft yelled escape from Wilfrid's mouth.

"Yes! Crown Prince!"

"Good!"

Wilfrid nodded in satisfaction as he took a sip of the tea.

Brandon exhaled a massive air while his body shivered in terror.

He felt he had escaped death.

His mind was drowned by just what happened.

Meanwhile, noticing that Brandon was already out of the conversation, the black-hooded man took a chance to express his curiosity.

"I know that your Uncle has already noticed my presence from his passive domain. However, how come he hasn't taken any action yet? He should have gotten rid of me, given that I'm already at his home."

Wilfrid smiled and replied.

"The level of suspicion he has would not be enough. At most, he would only sense your life force and deem it powerless to threaten him, even his son. Don't play dumb with me. I can even take you alone if it isn't because you possess countless artifacts.

Isn't that wrong, Reid Atlas? The third prince of Atlas Kingdom? Under the rule of the Archduke, Adrianus Atlas VII?"

The black-hooded man suddenly shuddered.

He slowly raised his head and met the eyes of Wilfrid, smiling ambiguously.

A gasp followed by a heavy breath resonated from the black-hooded man as he slowly calmed down.

Wilfrid noticed that it didn't escalate within his expectations, so he continued,

"I know long ago that you got rid of the assassin I hired with the help of your powerful butler, waiting outside the kingdom. I already know your intentions here. I've done my research when it comes to finding the possible influential people who hated my cousin to the core.

You're one of them. You loathed my cousin for having his thesis passed and recorded as groundbreaking, drowning your achievements in an instant. You even got pressure from your father and mother, right?

It's inevitable. After all, who could topple my cousin when it comes to the battle of intelligence? Not even me. Of course, I'm way more than him when it comes to scheming."

After his long talk, he giggled, ignoring the possible emotions that acted like a tide in the black-hooded man's mind.

The black hooded man didn't even have the time to digest just what happened yet when the talkative Wilfrid decided to continue.

"I know your intentions here. You wanted to know if I could be used in getting rid of my cousin since I could do it much more efficiently than you, right? After all, you don't want to escalate the heated secret battle between Archdukes already, or else you would have been in the deepest level of the Empire's prison.

Or worse, get beheaded!"

At this point, when he said the last sentence, he burst into laughter.

Every release of the irritating sound of laughing scratched the ears and mind of the black-hooded man.

How he wished he could call his butler at the moment and quickly order to kill the person in front of him, but he knew it would be too rash.

Furthermore, it would be such a dumb decision to execute.

He could only play along to what this man in front of him wanted.

Staring at Wilfrid, he gazed at him as he thought,

'Who would have thought that Luke was not the only monster in this house? A fox is hiding secretly, waiting for the chance to steal a crown!'

"So, what do you want from me?" His tone was a little down.

Wilfrid, however, decided not to state his intentions yet, so he didn't answer his question.

He said, "Efficient way of Spellcasting Water Element: An Analysis of Water being Versatile.

Hmmm… A very interesting thesis, I might say, and it has a very promising theme. Sadly, you failed to defend it in the Annual Magic Colloquium. Meanwhile, my cousin defended not only one but two of them."

Hearing it, Reid trembled in rage.

He knew that Wilfrid was mocking him, and he couldn't help but be furious.

He couldn't even think why Wilfrid was provoking him.

He must have known that he couldn't do anything.

Furthermore, even if he knew that Wilfrid would be schooling in the Royal Academy, he would be helpless since he didn't have the right to receive an invitation.

He wanted to ask for his sibling's help, but all of them were competing with each other to earn the crown.

He was completely hopeless, and the person in front of him, possibly his enemy, was aware of it.

He could only reply, "Two groundbreaking theses. One, A Battlemage's Potential: The Scrupulous Method of Channeling the Mana Points and Networks; the second, A Spellcaster's Potential: The Scrupulous Method of Spellcasting in the Theory of Gilbert's Law."

Reid finished his words with a sigh.

It was indeed groundbreaking, as the two theses not only aided the progress of Battle Mage but also the Spellcasting.

Not only was Luke rewarded with a Royal Medal, which was the 51st in the 999th Year of the Sun, but he was also rewarded by the Magic Council with the position that only mages contributed a lot to the progression of Magic.

The Arcane Mage!

The reward would occur at the end of the thirteenth month, with the celebration of the new year and the first millennium, which would happen exactly 43 days from now.

"Do you even know Gilbert's Law?" Wilfrid asked with an ambiguous tone.

Hearing it, Reid was furious again, having his ego stepped upon.

How could he not know Gilbert, who was also an Arcane Mage and who won the 46th Royal Medal with his groundbreaking thesis in Spellcasting accompanied by his achievements of being one of the heroes who defended the South Border from the rampant dark forces?

"Of course I do. He was the one who introduced Multi Spellcasting. You do know that every single spellcasting took a lot of our concentration, so when double spellcasting was introduced, it quickly garnered a lot of attention. It was then that the standard of the Mage Council-"

"All right." Wilfrid cut him off after sipping his tea. "I know that much."

Reid shot him a dissatisfied glare as he replied, "But I don't think you are aware of how shocking your cousin's thesis is. No one has ever tried to prove that Multi Spellcasting could be chantless even if every Mage has thought that it could be possible. However, he managed to prove it and defend it. Just that thesis alone is already sufficient for him to be rewarded as an Arcane Mage.

However, the Scrupulous Method of Channeling Mana Points and Networks? That's also the same level as the Multi Spellcasting Chantless Theory! Your cousin could even be regarded as a god by other mages now!

I would not be even surprised that by twenty years from now, he would be the president of the Mage Council! The youngest of them all!"