Tales of the Legendary Magus - Chapter 230

“Project Skynet? Small devices capable of tracking and listening in?” Rein questioned as his heart began beating slightly faster.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Ruby quickly interjected. “She has shown me the devices before, they take it too far. The devices can’t just be altered to add a microphone but they have also been created with a killswitch within.”

“A Killswitch?” Amelia questioned, “For the device?”

Sara, who still had an innocent smile on her face shook her head, “Nope! For the person.”

The room went silent for a couple of seconds after these words were spoken.

“I see,” Rein finally said after a couple of seconds, “And how hard are they to make?”

“Rein,” Amelia quickly interjected, “We’re not getting these things, the microphones are already pushing it heavily, we aren’t inserting killswitches into the people that are a part of the guild.”

Even though Amelia was generally the tough one, this time she was heavily against the idea of enabling Skynet.

“They’re quite cheap really!” Sara said jovially, ignoring Amelia, “And the best thing is, you don’t even need a runemaster to make them!”

When Sara finished her sentence she looked Ruby in the eyes with the same smile as earlier on her face. But Ruby found that it was more taunting than anything. She was planning to speak up when Max finally spoke as well.

“Rein. Amelia and Ruby are right. We already have good control of our guild members, the current problems aren’t nearly large enough to use this kind of….evil device.”

Rein looked at the faces around him and when he saw nobody but Sara wishing to support his opinion, he was about to take a step back and concede when the final voice came out.

“What are you guys talking about? Why wouldn’t you insert the devices?” Hazel asked with a confused expression as she looked at Amelia.

Nobody here had quite expected Hazel to stand on Rein’s side so Amelia quickly explained, “Hazel, these devices could kill whomever it’s implanted into whenever we wished, and hell, none of our members would have any privacy.”

Still holding a somewhat confused expression, Hazel expressed her opinion, “But they would give control, right? If you don’t have control, you have chaos, and with chaos, the cycle of death will continue to endlessly speed up. We learned that the hard way in Atlantis!”

“What are you talking about Hazel?” Amelia questioned, “How do you mean you learned that on Atlantis?”

With a now more serious expression, Hazel spoke, “Atlantis has had many leaders in the history, and many catastrophes have happened as well! When the leaders have control over the citizens, nothing bad happens. It’s impossible for it to do so! It’s only when a leader loosens up, allowing their subjects enough freedom and power to rally up that war breaks out and they get overthrown! It’s then that people die, not under the rule of a strict leader, even if they restrict freedoms somewhat.

“Other than the beast king, all previous major massacres happened this way. It wasn’t because of the revolutionaries. Our current leaders were once revolutionaries. It’s the leaders allowing revolutionaries to exist! When people don’t have the chance to rebel, they’ll be loyal and they won’t feel the need to kill their own.”

Amelia looked at Hazel in an entirely different light now. Hazel always seemed kind so she never really thought about the fact that she was an Atlantian with Atlantian beliefs before.

“This isn’t the same Hazel.” Amelia said after a moment, “There isn’t a single city here, this is the central continent, it has hundreds of different forces who are all out to get each other!”

This time, Hazel also felt herself heating up, “But it won’t be like that for long right? Isn’t it best to make preparations now?”

“What are you talking about?”

When Amelia asked this, she noticed Rein was looking away from her and Ruby looked visibly conflicted, a rare sight. As for Sara, she was unreadable.

“What is she talking about?” Amelia now asked in a more serious tone as she realized Rein and Ruby both seemed to know what Hazel was talking about.

For a few moments it was silent before finally, Ruby spoke up, “She’s talking about Villin.”

“How do you mean she’s talking about Villin? Weren’t you just on my side?” Amelia asked as she felt uncertainties pop up, something she had known for a while but had been cropping away was starting to make its way up to her consciousness.

“When it comes to Skynet, I am against it,” Ruby finally said. “But, what Hazel means. Amelia, what is Villin’s goal? Do you know why he made this guild?”

“Yes, I was there! It’s made to revolutionize magic. To create bigger, better, more powerful types of magic and advance all magical disciplines.”

“And how do you think he’s going to do that?” asked Rein this time, looking her in the eyes again, his expression was no longer confrontational though.

“By… by growing the guild, making it a beacon for improvement. Like the towers!”

“Amelia, do you know who created the towers. How they came to be?” Ruby asked this time, causing Amelia to get even more nervous.

“I don’t, I’m mortalborn you know,” she said as she had become much more timid compared to just a minute ago.

“Something like the towers doesn’t just pop up. The forces of the continent didn’t just suddenly get along with each other and decided to work together. There have been revolutionaries before. First, there was Roland. He defied all odds and defeated the magi of the central and eastern continent, unifying them before creating The Academy, later one of his students became the first magus from the western continent as well. He was a revolutionary who advanced magic by hundreds of years using a unified people.

“Then, much more recently, there was the monarch. A mortalborn magus that believed she too should be allowed to learn magic and enter the magus world. She wanted the mortalborn to be accepted and for magi to work together, advance magic, and conquer other worlds. She took over the entire central continent, created the towers we all know now, and let mortalborn learn magic. She has done horrible things before her death, but she also had a lasting positive impact on the continent, changing it massively and tripling the speed at which we advance magic today compared to how we used to.” Ruby explained as she went over the history she was told by her family.

Max looked at the ground as he realized what was being heavily implied by the three people here that were in the know, while Amelia still seemed to be having difficulties believing what was being told.

“But… the monarch. From what I heard she was terrible, she killed thousands of magi, caused the rest to live in fear and under her iron fist. All continents were forced to work together to finally take her down!” Amelia exclaimed, this was all she really learned about the monarch in the last three years.

“Even with her death, she unified the world, even if it was just for a single day,” Ruby said, echoing the words her father once told her. The three continents worked together to take someone out, it was the second time in history that had happened.

Decisively, Amelia shook her head, “No, Villin isn’t like that. He can do things better, fairer. So many don’t have to die just to advance magic.” she said, unknowingly a couple of tears had crept into her eyes.

Ruby looked away from her as she stared at Rein, “Even though I don’t agree with her. I do believe there are limits, certainly when it comes to our own people. You don’t even need a runemaster to make these things. If we begin using them, others will find a way to make them as well. What happens if every time we are about to kill a guild leader, all the members of said guild also die? There’d be no magi civilization to improve, none at all.”

This time, she had Rein placed in a corner, he tried to find a way around that but couldn’t. Sara too, was silenced with that argument, she eventually spoke up, “This…if this was the problem then why didn’t you tell me last time?” she questioned Ruby with an unhidden angry expression before storming off.

The people left in the room were in a variety of states, Amelia was sat in a chair convincing herself that Villin wouldn’t be another monarch, killing thousands for ‘the greater good’, Ruby was looking at the door Sara left through with an unsure expression, Max was sat on the ground, his mind in turmoil as he tried to place everything he just realized, and finally, Hazel sat in a corner, she wanted to apologize to Ruby since she hadn’t thought of other people stealing the technology but wasn’t sure how to approach her. Her worries were by far, the least pressing amongst them all.